THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


HISTOKY 


OF  THE 


LACKAfAMA  VALLEY. 


BTE 


H.    HOLLISTEB,    M.D, 


WITH  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


SECOND   EDITION 


E IV TIRE 31. Y    RE-WRITTEN, 


NEW  YORK: 
PRINTED   BY   C.   A.  ALVORD,   15  VANDEWATER  STREET. 

1869. 


r.ntered  according  t.)  Act  of  Conprrsfs,  In  tlic  ytar  1S69, 

I!v    H.    Hol.USTEK,    M  I)., 

In  Ou>  Clerk's  Office  of  Die  District  Court  of  the  United  States,   for  the  Southern 
District  of  New  York. 


A  I.  V  O  It  I>,    P  K  1  N  T  E  U. 


PKEFACE 


TO  THE  FIBST  EDITION. 


IN"  presenting  to  the  public  these  "  Contributions,"  it  seems 
proper  to  state  that  the  collection  of  the  embodied  facts  was  more 
the  result  of  the  love  possessed  by  the  writer  for  such  incidents  and 
history,  than  the  hope  of  either  a  pecuniary  reward,  or  a  literary 
reputation. 

Becoming  familiar  with  a  few  features  in  the  history  of  the 
Lackawanna  Valley,  the  writer  was  induced,  by  the  solicitations 
of  his  friends,  to  put  them  into  a  shape  whereby  their  publication 
might  possibly  awaken  an  interest,  or  perhaps  elicit  new  and  more 
connected  material  from  a  region  where  nothing  yet  had  been 
done  in  the  way  of  gathering  its  local  history. 

From  the  absence  of  a  proper  and  continued  record — from 
indistinct  and  often  conflicting  memories — and  from  the  death  of 
all  who  were  familiar  with  its  earliest  settlement,  it  is  very  proba- 
ble that  events  narrated  are  sometimes  given  in  an  imperfect,  and 
even  in  an  inaccurate  manner.  It  would  not  be  surprising  if  such 
was  the  fact ;  but  the  reader  must  bear  in  mind  that  not  only  the 
personal,  but  the  general  history  recorded  here  was  written  while 
the  author  was  engaged  in  a  large  practice,  and  harassed  by  all 
the  continual  anxieties  occurring  in  one  of  the  most  exhausting 
and  thankless  professions  in  the  country. 

While  the  author  asks  no  indulgence  from  this  circumstance, 
yet  he  apprehends  that  a  practice  of  twelve  years,  with  its  too 
often  accompanying  annoyances— compelled  to  view  human  nature 


4  I*REFACK. 

in  every  possible  light,  and  encounter  it  in  its  most  humiliating 
aspect — eminently  fits  him  to  bear  the  murmurs  of  those  who 
Mippose  that  a  volume  can  l»e  as  easily  written  as  rcmL 

None  of  the  Sketehes  are  arranged  in  chronological  order; 
many  are  neeessarily  brief,  meager,  and  unsatisfactory,  owing  to 
the  great  dearth  of  material ;  while  some,  it  is  j)ossil»le,  do  better 
justiee  to  tlie  subject. 

It  would  have  given  pleasure  to  the  writer,  to  have  presented 
a  genealogical  view  of  the  original  families  in  the  valley;  but  as 
this  contemplated  feature  would  necessarily  have  enlarged  the 
volume  beyond  its  intended  limits,  without  adding  much  to  its 
general  interest,  it  was  abandoned. 

The  obligations  of  the  writer  are  due  to  all  his  friends,  who 
have,  by  their  liberal  subscriptions  to  the  volume,  manifested 
such  an  interest  in  its  welfare. 

II.    IIoLLI>TEH. 

Providence^  Pa.,  18.37. 


THE  volume,  of  which  a  second  edition  is  now  published,  has 
been  so  thoroughly  modified  and  revised  in  its  general  outline,  as 
to  present  the  features  of  a  different,  and,  I  trust,  a  better  work 
than  the  preceding  one.  Very  many  pages  have  been  wholly 
obliterated  ;  the  remainder  re-written  and  radically  changed,  while 
a  number  of  pa  ires  of  interesting;  historical  matter — sought  after 
from  triiMl worthy  records  and  testimony  with  an  earnestness  that 
possibly  may  deserve  expressions  of  approbation  and  success — 
have  been  added  thereunto. 

In  my  former  volume,  I  gave  but  a  ycncrtt/  n-coirnition  of  the 
favors  of  my  friends,  who,  in  various  ways,  contributed  toward 
its  successful  development.  In  this,  I  desire  to  return  especial 
thanks  to  several  persons  whose  manly  sympathies  and  generous 
aid  lay  me  under  a  grateful  obligation  and  remembrance. 


PREFACE.  5 

For  materials  drawn  from  the  Pennsylvania  Archives  and  Colo- 
nial Records,  and  other  authorities,  appropriate  acknowledgment 
appears  in  its  proper  place.  In  addition  to  these  sources  of  infor- 
mation, fully  noted  and  credited,  I  would  return  thanks  to  G.  B. 
NICHOLSON',  ESQ.,  for  access  to  the  Westmoreland  Records ;  to 
B.  H.  THBOOP,  M.  D.,  for  valuable  suggestions  in  regard  to  the 
volume;  to  SELDEN  T.  SCRANTON,  of  Oxford  Furnace,  N.  J.,  for 
•cts  of  friendship  which  characterize  his  desire  to  make  every  man's 
pathway  blossom  with  the  rose ;  to  S.  B.  STURDEVANT,  M.  D.,  for  fa- 
vors which  were  given  in  so  cheerful  a  manner  as  to  greatly  enhance 
their  value ;  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  PECK,  for  the  biographical  sketch  of 
the  late  Hon.  GEORGE  W.  SCRANTON  ;  to  Ho  n.  STEUBEN  JENKINS, 
whose  antiquarian  knowledge  promises  to  the  world  an  invaluable 
documentary  history  of  Gen.  SULLIVAN'S  celebrated  Wyoming 
expedition  in  1779;  to  STEPHEN  ROGERS  and  D.  YARINGTON,  for 
papers  concerning  the  settlement  of  Carbondale  ;  to  N.  ORR  & 
Co.,  of  New  York,  and  EUGENE  FRANK,  of  Wilkes  Barre,  for 
their  skillful  execution  of  the  cuts  adorning  the  work,  and  to 
HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  for  the  sale  and  use  of  electrotypes,  illus- 
trating scenes  in  the  Lackawanna  Valley. 

The  author  of  the  following  pages,  who  was  not  born  upon  the 
banks  of  the  Lackawanna,  but  was  nurtured  among  her  mountains, 
would  do  injustice  to  his  own  feelings  did  he  not  gratefully 
acknowledge  the  kind,  yet  undeserved,  encomiums  of  the  editorial 
fraternity,  and  the  favorable  reception  the  community  gave  his 
"Contributions"  in  1857.  May  he  not  indulge  in  the  hope  that  the 
young  valley  is  not  now  less  athletic  and  friendly  than  then? 

H.    HOLLISTER. 

Providence,  Pa.,  1869. 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGB 

SLOCUM  HOLLOW  IN  1840,  •                        -  FRONTISPIECE. 

CAMPBELL'S  LEDGE,      -  -     26 

INDIAN  MAP  OF  CAPOOSE,  -                        -            -    31 

BALD  MOUNT,    -  -                                      -     65 

IRA  TRIPP,  -  125 

MONOCASY  ISLAND,       -  -  169 

BLOODY  ROCK,  -                        -   170 

JOHN  B.  SMITH,  -                         ...   209 

NAY-AUG  FALLS,  -  212 

THE  OLD  SLOCUM  HOUSE,  -            -                        -            -  219 

WM.  HENRY,     -  -  225 

SELDEN  T.  SCR  ANTON,  -  241 

JOSEPH  H.  SCRANTON,  -           -  245 

B.  H.  THROOP,  M.  D.,  -  249 

SCRANTON  IN  1860,        -  -  261 

FIRST  BAPTIST  CHURCH  IN  CARBONDALE,       -            -            -  299 

FIRST  LOCOMOTIVE  RUN  IN  AMERICA,  .            .            .  354 

THOS.  DICKSON,  -                        -  361 

DELAWARE  WATER  GAP,  ....  339 

HON.  JOHN  BRISBIN,     -  •    -  391 

HON.  GEORGE  W.  SCRANTON,  -                        -            -  405 

HON.  ASA  PACKER,      -  -  411 


CONTENTS. 


INDIAN  HISTORY  OP  WYOMING.  PAOB 

Traditions  regarding  a  great  tyrant  on  the  Susquehanna  in  602 — The  Five 
Nations  controlling  the  war-paths  in  the  valley  in  1640 — The  extent  of 
their  sachemship — The  Monseys  stroll  along  the  Lackawanna  about  1700 — 
Teedyuscung  and  his  Delaware  tribe  ordered  to  "Wyoming — Visit  of  Count 
Zinzendorf  to  "Wyoming — Dr.  Gill's  account  of  his  visit — .Tourney  of  Conrad 
Weiser  to  ""Woyamock"  in  1754 — "Spies"  reported  here — The  Delaware 
Indian  Village  of  Asserughney,  near  Campbell's  Ledge — Adjouqua — A  fort 
to  be  built  at  Adjouqua  (mouth  of  the  Lackawanna)  at  the  request  of  the 
Six  Nations  in  1756 — Interesting  scrap  of  hiscory 17-29 

INDIAN  VILLAGE   OF  CAPOOSB. 

Capoose,  a  contemporary  of  Teedyuscung,  sells  his  lands  in  New  Jersey, 
migrates  to  the  Lackawanna  and  makes  his  "smoke"  upon  its  bank — Is 
visited  in  1742  by  Count  Zinzendorf — Hunting  and  planting  grounds  at 
Capoose — Alienation  of  the  Delaware  and  Monsey  tribes  after  Braddock's 
defeat — Gnaddenhutten  burned,  and  Broadhead's  plantation  on  the  Dela- 
ware laid  waste — Indian  Congress  held  in  Easton,  in  October,  1758 — Log- 
houses  built  at  Wyoming  for  Teedyuscung,  by  Gov.  Penn — Major  Parson's 
description  of  the  Great  Sachem  while  he  was  "  brightening  the  chain  of 
friendship  "  at  Easton  at  this  time 29-39 

LACKAWANNA   RIVER  AND   VALLEY. 

Iroquois  and  Delaware  diversity  of  names,  now  corrupted  into  Lackawanna — 
Beauty  of  the  stream  and  valley — The  union  of  the  Lackawanna  with  the 
Susquehanna  portrayed  by  the  late  Mrs.  Sigourney 40-43 

WAS  WYOMING  ONCE   A   VAST   LAKE? 

The  Kittatinny  Mountain  now  serrated  with  gaps,  forming  a  dam  for  the 
reception  of  the  waters  of  the  Chemung,  Chenango,  Delaware,  and  Sus- 
quehanna— Ridges  crossing  the  great  rivers — Interesting  views  of  the 
celebrated  C.  F.  Volney,  Schoolcraft,  and  Professor  Beck — A  singular  large 
rock  at  Pittston  out  of  place — Opinion  of  the  late  Hon.  Charles  Miner  and 
Judge  Packer — Debris  of  ocean-life  upon  the  Pocono  2,000  feet  above  tide 
water — Probable  ancient  course  of  the  Susquehanua — Veins  of  coal  oblit- 
erated by  the  agency  of  water  favor  the  theory — Notches  in  the  Moosic 
range  near  Scranton 43-49 

WAR-PATHS. 

From  Asserughney  Village  to  Capoose — One  trail  leads  to  the  Delaware — 
The  other  diverges  to  Oquago  (now  Windsor,  N.  Y.) 49-50 

INDIAN  SPRING  UPON  THE  MOOSIC  MOUNTAIN. 
Whites  killed  by  its  side  in  1778 50-51 


JO  CONTENTS. 

INDIAN    RELICS   AND   FORTIFICATIONS.  I-AOH 

Along  the  Susquehanna— At  the  mouth  of  the  Lackawannu — Upon  the 
Myosic— Mound  opened  at  Capoose  in  1795 — Another  fouud  in  Covington 
in  is.n,  containing  vast  deposits — Former  neglect  of  scientific  men  in 
gathering  nnd  preserving  Indian  implements 51-59 

IN  PI  AN    APPLE-TREK.     . 

Orchard  at  the  wigwams  of  Capoose  a  century  ago — A  single  tree  still  seen 
by  the  roadside,  bringing  forth  its  fruit 59-61 

BEACON*    FIRES. 

Traces  of  ancient  signal  flre-plaees  upon  the  higher  points  of  the  Moosic 
Mountain,  used  by  the  red  men  at  the  time  of  their  occupancy  of  the 
Lackawanna  Forest 61-63 

SILVER   MINK   ON   THE   LACKAWANNA. 

The  whites  charged  by  the  Indians  with  carrying  oft"  silver  ore  from 
AVyoming  in  canoes,  in  1706 — Interesting  revelation  of  an  old  Oneida 
chief — Three  salt  ajiriitg*,  and  three  mines,  respectively  of  silver,  gab  I,  and 
lead,  reported  by  him  to  be  located  within  the  boundaries  of  Wyoming.  .63-64 

G«>LI>  MINE. 

Bald  Mount — A  gold  mine  supposed  to  be  located  at  its  base — Singular 
report  of  a  captive  concerning  it 64-67 

SALT   SPRINGS. 
Their  location 67-G3 

LEAD    MINE. 

Tuscarora  Creek — An  item  of  its  local  history — A  reminiscence  of  Gen. 
Sullivan's  march  up  the  Susquchanna  into  the  Indian  empire  in  1779.. .  .68-~0 

GENERAL   HISTORY. 

\\~yominy,  in  its  goncrnl  signification,  embracing  not  only  the  entire  Lack- 
awanna Valley,  but  all  the  territory  within  Provincial  limits  purchased  by 
the  Yankees — Reports  «.f  these  lands  reaching  Connecticut,  lead  to  the 
formation  of  the  Sutquehanna  Cintij-ainj  in  1  ".">:! — Men  who  were  sent  out 
to  explore  Wyoming  arc  tracked  and  watched  by  the  Proprietary  Govern- 
ment of  Pennsylvania — Beauty  of  the  inland  settlement — Incipient  strife 
for  its  possession — Its  primary  purchase  of  the  Indians  in  1754  by  the 
Suaquehanna  Company  and  the  Delaware  Company — Pennsylvania,  cha- 
grined at  the  success  of  Yankee  diplomacy,  attempts  to  intimidate  people 
from  S«'W  England — Men  and  women  to  l>e  shipped  to  Philadelphia,  "men 
to  In-  imprisoned  or  compiled  to  enlist  in  the  Indian  War  on  the  Ohio  " — 
Cayugit  Indians  also  threaten  the  Yankees  with  savage  greeting  if  they 
nettle  at  Wyoming — The  Moravians  fraternize  with  the  Indians  at  Wv- 
alusing — Pnwhing  at  "  Waioming  and  Lerk  a-we-ke  "  (Lackawnck)  in 
17.'>5 — Reward  offered  for  Indian  scalps — Cochecton  settled — Charles 
Tomson  and  Christian  Frederick  Post  visit  Wyoming  and  "  Lcc-haugh- 
hunt"iti  1758,  by  order  of  Governor  Penn — Backsinosa  with  100  war- 
riors nt  Lcc-luiugh-hunt — Country  visited  and  described  in  1758  by  two 
Indian  interpreters,  Moses  Titamy  ar.d  Isaac  Hill — Teedyuscung  complains 
of  the  Yankee*  along  the  Delaware — Settlement  inaugurated  in  Wyoming 


CONTENTS.  11 

TAOB 

in  1702 — Teedyuscung  again  complains  to  the  Governor,  who  makes  fair 
promises — Fruits  of  the  interview — Murder  or  expulsion  of  every  white 
person  from  Wyoming  in  1763 — Evident  complicity  of  Pennsylvania 
officials  in  the  massacre — Atrocious  butchery  of  friendly  Indians  at  Lan- 
caster by  the  whites — John  Anderson  opens  a  store  at  "Wyoming  in  17 66 — 
Original  grant  of  lands  to  Connecticut  and  to  Wm.  Penn — Trenton  De- 
cree   70-105 

GENERAL  HISTORY  (CONTINUED). 

Purchase  of  "Wyoming  lands  by  Pennsylvania  in  1768 — Preparations  of  the 
Susquehanna  Company  to  make  a  permanent  settlement  upon  their  pur- 
chase— Occupancy  of  the  territory  by  Pennsylvanians — Block-house 
erected  at  the  mouth  of  the  "Lamawanack  "  in  1769 — Settlers  taken  pris- 
oners— Names  of  persons  in  Pittston  "  fit  for  mischief"  in  1769-1772 
— The  Lackawanna  paths  guarded  by  Pennymites  to  prevent  the  Yan- 
kees from  escaping  capture — "Westmoreland  Records,  where  are  they? — 
Clearings  extended  up  the  Lackawanna — Settler's  rights  voted — Zebulon 
Marcy's  cabin — Flints  and  cartridges  carried  to  Wyoming  by  the  Penny- 
mites  to  tranquilize  the  "  wrangling  "  inhabitants — Providence  settled  — 
General  expulsion  of  the  Yankees  from  the  valley  by  Pennsylvania  sol- 
diers  105-121 

ISAAC  TRIPP. 

Emigrates  to  "Wyoming,  where  he  plays  a  prominent  part  In  its  history — 
Taken  prisoner  at  Capoose — Ira  Tripp 121-130 

WESTMORELAND. 
Officially  recognized  by  Connecticut  as  a  portion  of  its  Colony 130-132 

WALLENPAUPACK  SETTLEMENT. 

Within  the  jurisdiction  of  Westmoreland — Its  history — Fort  erected — Alarm 
of  the  inhabitants — The/  flee  from  the  savages 1 32-134 

JAMES   LEGGETT. 

Civilization  slowly  carried  up  the  Lackawanna — Vote  of  Congress  regarding 
Wyoming  difficulties 134-137 

FIRST   WAGON  ROAD  FROM  PITTSTON   TO   THE   DELAWARE. 
Three  shillings  per  day  given  men  for  working  upon  the  road — Importance 
of  the  thoroughfare 137-139 

MILITARY  ORGANIZATION. 

Rigid  discipline  essential  to  the  existence  of  the  young  settlement — The 
inhabitants  compelled  to  train  every  fourteen  days — Ear-marks  for  cattle 
running  at  large 139-141 

RELIGION,   MORALITY  AND   STILL-HOUSES. 

First  church  erected  in  the  centra]  portion  of  the  valley — Bundling — Indians 
forbidden  to  have  whisky  because  of  the  murderous  agitation  it  caused 
in  the  forest — Yet  still-houses  are  encouraged  by  the  whites — Eight  still 
or  beer  houses  in  Providence  in  1798 — Recreation  of  the  inhabitants — A 
committee  meet  in  Wilkes  Barre  "  at  fix  a  Clock  in  ye  forenoon'1''  to  consider 
the  province  of  "Lickquor  " — Causes  of  its  commercial  importance.. .  .141-148 


12  CONTENTS. 

FAUB 

MILLS    UPON"   THK   LACKAWANNA 118-149 

DR.   .JOSEPH    SPRAUGE. 
The  first  physician  in  the  Luckawanuu  Valley — ''Granny  Sprauge  ' 150-151 

DR.   WILLIAM    HOOKER    SMITH— OLD    FORGE. 

Groat  surge  A)  in  Gen.  Sullivan's  Expedition — First  purchase  of  stone-coal 
recorded  in  Lux.erne  County,  in  1701 — Old  Forge  as  described  by  the  late 
Hon.  Charles  Miner  in  a  letter  to  the  writer 151-15-1 

THE   SIGNAL   TREE 154-15; 

THE   WYOMING   MASSACRE. 

Its  cause,  character,  and  consequences — Interesting  version  of  events  trans- 
piring immediately  before  the  battle,  by  a  witness  still  living — But  a  single 
habitation  left  standing  in  the  entire  Lackawanna  Valley — General  Sul- 
livan's Ex|>vdilion  in  177!> — "Pried  scalps  of  women  and  children"  found 
in  the  wigwams  by  Col.  Hartley — Proposition  made  to  hunt  the  Indians 
with  horses  and  doy* — Extraordinary  adventure  and  escape 155-171 

GENERAL    HISTORY— (UESUMKI>). 

Connecticut  and  Pennsylvania  reii^w  the  struggle  for  Wyoming  witli  in- 
creased bitterness — The  Lackawanna  people,  turned  out  of  their  houses  by 
armed  bands  urged  on  by  land-jobbers,  are  treated  "excessively  cruel  " — • 
Every  New  England  emigrant  carried  10  prison  and  fed  on  bread  and 
water — Liberated,  they  return  and  defy  the  Pennymites  — A  bold  project 
of  Col.  Ethan  Allen,  John  Franklin,  anil  other  shrewd  Yankees  to  form  a 
new  State  out  of  Wyoming,  annihilated  by  the  simple  formation  of  Luzerne 
County  in  17SG — The  various  compromising  laws  give  tranquillity  to  the 
settlement 177-186 

PROVIDENCE   TOWNSHIP    AND   VILLAGE. 

Their  general  history — Rich  lands  of  Capoose  reluctantly  vacated  by  their 
tawny  ocrupants — Exeter,  Providence,  and  the  country  north,  made  into 
one  election  district  in  177-1  —  Indian  apple-tree  at  Capoose  designated  as 
"  Ye  Town  .Sign-post '" — Meeting  of  settlers  under  its  branches  in  1775. 
to  draw  for  lots  in  Putnam  Township  (now  Tunkhanriock) — Taxables  of 
Providence  T-iwnship  for  the  year  1796 — Dr.  Silas  B.  Robinson — The 
'•  great  blow  "  of  1  ft.'l  1 1 SC-205 

DUXMORE. 

Causes  which  led  to  its  settlement  and  expansion — Source  of  its  prosperity — 
John  B.  Smith 206-211 

HISTORY    OF   SCR  ANTON. 

The  first  log-structure  erected  in  Deep  Hollow  (Scranton) — Philip  Abbott 
gives  expression  to  the  necessities  of  the  farmers  at  Capoose  by  the 
••rection  of  a  grist-mill  upon  Roaring  Brook  in  1788 — Unique  character  of 
the  mill — First  bridge  across  the  Lackawanna  in  1796 — Hyde  Park  cleared 
and  settled— Dolphs— Dr.  Joseph  Davis— The  Slocums  acquire  the  property 
and  inaugurate  iron-works — Still- houses  and  general  prosperity  around 
Capocwj — The  old  landmark  of  Slocum  Hollow — Post-office  established — 
Providential  escape  of  Mr.  Slocum,  in  ISO*,  from  a  frightful  death — Tho 


CONTENTS.  13 

PAOK 

obliteration  of  the  forge  and  still  in  182fi,  temporarily  suspends  the  life  of 
Slocuni  Hollow — Four  prominent  gentlemen  early  agitating  the  interests 
of  the  valley — William  and  Maurice  Wurts,  Henry  W.  Drinker,  aud  Wm. 
Meredith — Their  plan  to  resuscitate  the  Hollow — A  brighter  aspect  strug- 
gling its  way  into  the  settlement — Primary  impulse  toward  a  Village  in 
Scrantou,  given  by  the  Drinker  railroad  project — Wm.  Henry — Acqui- 
sition of  the  Slocum  Hollow  property  by  Messrs.  Scrantons,  Grant,  and 
Mattes — Inauspicious  attempt  to  start  a  furnace  in  Scrantou  in  1841 — 
Dark  period  in  the  history  of  the  iron-works.  1 842-3 — Joseph  H.  and  E.  0. 
Scranton — Sketch  of  the  different  churches  in  Scranton,  from  1841  to  the 
present  time,  with  the  names  of  the  pastors — Unfaltering  energy  of  Col. 
Scrantou — Nail  factory  built  below  the  falls  of  Nay-aug — Village  of  Har- 
rison laid  out  in  the  woods — Selden  T.  Scranton — Failure  to  get  a  post- 
office  re-established — The  year  1846  auspicious  in  the  history  of  Scran- 
ton— Bankruptcy  only  averted  by  the  Trail — Lively  times  in  the  town- 
ship— Dr.  Throop  builds  a  cottage  near  the  swamp — Organization  of  the 
iron  company — Difficulty  of  reaching  a  market  for  iron — Post-office  again 
established  in  Scrantonia — Conception  of  a  locomotive  road  westward,  by 
Colonel  Scranton- — Wyoming  House  and  hotels — Thrift  of  Scranton — Its 
newspapers — Description  of  the  iron-works — List  of  physicians  who 
have  lived  and  practiced  their  profession  within  the  city  limits  of  Scranton 
— Its  lawyers — Its  industrial  enterprises — Founderies — Machine-shops — 
Capouse  Works — Sasli  and  blind  factory — Stove  manufactories — Dickson 
Manufacturing  Company 211-268 

BLAKELEY. 

Its  name  and  general  history — Second  church  in  the  valley  built  within  its 
limits 269-273 

YANKEE  WAY  OF  PULLING  A  TOOTH 274 

THOMAS   SMITH 275 

SETTLEMENT   OF   ABINGTON. 
The  former  danger  and  wildness  of  Leggett's  Gap — Names  of  settlers..  .275-282 

THE   GREAT   HUNTER.  ELIAS   SCOTT. 
His  encounter  with  a  bear — Great  destruction  cf  rattlesnakes 282-284 

"DRINKER'S   BEECH"— (Now  Covington). 

Its  earliest  history — 25,000  acres  of  land  purchased  by  Mr.  Drinker  in  1788,      , 
upon  the  Pocono — Ascending  the  narrow  Lehigh  in  a  batteau  to  its  upper 
waters — Names  of  the  first  settlers — Drinker's  Turnpike 234-288 

SETTLEMENT   OF  JEFFERSON. 

Its  border  traversed  by  the  Yankees — Asa  Cobb — A  wolf  killed  by  Mrs. 
Cobb  with  a  pitchfork — Imaginary  shire  town  and  county 288—291 

CHASED   BY   A  PANTHER. 
Perils  of  the  forest  thirty  years  ago 29 1-293 

DUNNING. 
Pleasant  Valley — Barney's  Ledge — Hon.  A.  B.  Dunning 293-295 


14  CONTENTS. 

CARBON'DALE.  PAG* 

Rappvd  Islands — Capt.  Gco.  Rix— Tlio  "  big  flats"  chopped  and  logged  oft"— 
Unique  attire  of  a  woodman — Christopher  K.  "Wilbur — 1802-1814 — Ex- 
plorations bv  Maurice  and  \\'m.  Wurts — DundafT  laid  out  by  Mr.  Conyng- 
ham  in  1*22 — C'oal-mino  opened — A  village  emerging  from  the  Carbondalo 
glen — first  frame-house  erected — Sled-loads  of  coal  drawn  twenty  miles 
to  the  Paupack 295-300 

LACKAWANNA   VALLEY   IN    1804. 

Elder  John  Miller — A  general  retrospective  glance  of  its  inhabitants  and  its 
appearance  as  given  by  him — Zephaniah  Knapp — Development  of  the 
valley 300-310 

FORMATION   OF  TOWNSHIPS;    PRIMITIVE   MINISTERS. 
Rev.  Jacob   Johnson,  the  first  minister  in  Wyoming — Curious  letter — Rev. 
Wni.  Bishop — Hyde  Park  log  church — Habits  of  the  people 310-314 

PROPRIETORS'   SCHOOL   FUND   AND   PRIMITIVE   SCHOOLS.  314-316 

PATHS   AND    ROADS. 

Journey  from  Connecticut  to  Pitl.ston  in  1793 — Little  Meadows — Visited  in 
1703  by  Bishop  Asbury 317-322 

THE   RISE   OF   METHODISM   IN   THE   VALLEY. 
Anning  Owen — Two  distiuotive  impulses  given  its  development — Rev.  Dr. 
Geo.  Peck— Methodist  ministers 322-326 

SMELLING    IIKLL. 326-328 

FORMATION   OF   ANTHRACITE   COAL. 
Its  vegetable  character 323-329 

ORGANIC   REMAINS   FOUND   IN   THE   COAL   STRATA. 
Tbeir  abundance  in  tlie  Lacka wanna  Valley 329-33 1 

MINERALS   AND    MINING 331-332 

COAL  LANDS   FIFTY   YEARS   AGO. 
Worthlessncss  of  skme-coal  in  Slocum  Hollow  tifty  years  ago 332-333 

THE  DISCOVERY  AND  INTRODUCTION  INTO  USE  OF  ANTHRA- 
CITE COAL. 

General  prejudice  against  its  use — Difliculty  of  gicimj  coal  away,  and  the 
danger  of  attempting  to  sell  it — Hon.  Charles  Miner — Jacob  Cist — Triumphs 
of  Mone-coal — Used  up  the  Lackawanna  as  a  fuel  in  1812 — Details  of  in- 
terest  ::::3-3i3 

WILLIAM   AND  MAURICE   WURTS. 

Their  explorations  in  the  coal-fields  of  the  I/ickiiwanna — A  trivial  incident 
favors  Win.  Wnrts  in  purchasing  the  wild  lands  where  Carbondalc  now 
stands — Hon.  Paul  S.  Preston — First  load  of  coal  ever  drawn  from  the 
Lackawanna  shipwrecked  in  the  turbid  waters  of  Jones's  Creek — New  York 
and  the  Lackawanna  Valley  linked  together  by  the  social  genius  of  canal, 
railroad,  and  river — Delaware  and  Hudson  Canal  Company — The  flrst  loco- 
motive-engine in  America  runs  a  short  distance  from  Honesdale,  in  1828 — 
Achievements  of  this  great  company — Thos.  Diekson 3-13-363 


CONTENTS.  15 

PALLING  IN   OF   THE   CARBONDALE   MINES.  no* 

Appalling  tomb — One  mile  of  slato  and  rock  between  the  miners  and  the 
outer  world 363-3G7 

EARLIEST   MAIL   ROUTE   THROUGH  THE   VALLEY. 
Letter  carried  to  Toedyuscung  in  1762 367-369 

THE   PENNSYLVANIA  COAL  COMPANY. 

The  entrance  of  this  gravity  coal-road  into  the  valley  vehemently  opposed 
by  intriguing  men — Its  final  success 369-372 

FROM   PITTSTON  TO  HAWLEY. 
Fine  views  from  Cobb  Mountain — Local   history — Cobb's  Gap 372-379 

DELAWARE,  LACKAWANNA,  AND  WESTERN  RAILROAD. 

Historical  summary  of  the  Susquehanna  and  Delaware  Canal  and  Railroad 
Company — The  Leggett's  Gap  Railroad ;  now  merged  into  the  Delaware, 
Lackawanna,  and  Western  Railroad — A  brief  detail  of  the  early  struggles 
of  energetic  men  to  connect  the  Lackawanna  with  the  Delaware — Henry 
W.  Drinker,  William  Henry,  CoL  Geo.  W.  Scranton,  John  Brisbin,  Samuel 
Sloan. . . : 379-393 

LACKAWANNA   AND   BLOOMSBURG  RAILROAD. 
Crossing  Wyoming  battle-grounds — Wyoming  scenery — Jas.  Archibald. ..  393-396 

SKETCH   OF  THE   EARLY   HISTORY   OF  THE  LEHIGH  AND 
SUSQUEHANNA   RAILROAD. 

Indian  civilizers  at  Gnaddenhutten  (uow  Weissport)  in  1746 — Casual  dis- 
covery of  anthracite  near  Mauch  Chunk,  gives  foetal  life  to  the  Lehigh  Coal 
and  Navigation  Company,  and  tames  the  wild  waters  of  the  Lehigh — 
Slackwater  navigation — The  jealous  interest  of  Wyoming,  represented  by 
Hon.  Andrew  Beaumont,  inimical  to  the  Lehigh  Coal  and  Navigation 
Company — Jealousies  allayed  and  harmony  promoted  by  the  company 
agreeing  to  build  a  gravity  railroad  over  the  mountain  from  White  Haven 
to  Wilkes  Barre — Appalling  flood  upon  the  Lehigh  in  1862 — Locomotives 
descend  from  the  mount  into  Wyoming — Grandeur  of  the  mountain  view 
— John  Leisenring — John  P.  Ilsley 396-403 

HON.  GEORGE  W.  SCRANTON. 

A  sketch  of  his  life,  and  an  estimate  of  his  moral  character,  by  Rev.  Dr. 
Peck 403-410 

LEHIGH  VALLEY  RAILROAD. 

The  high  ridge  separating  the  Lehigh  from  the  Lackawanna,  receives  another 
diadem  of  iron — Hon.  Asa  Packer — The  commercial  greatness  and  impor- 
tance of  this  thoroughfare,  fraternizing  with  the  Delaware,  Lehigh,  and 
upper  Susquehanna 410-417 

APPENDIX. 
Indian  relic  controversy — Wyoming  fair — 419-442 


HISTORY  OF  THE  LACKAWANNA  VALLEY. 


INDIAN   HISTORY. 

THE  Indian's  side  of  history  can  never  be  written,  be- 
cause traditions  running  back  through  centuries,  and 
cherished  only  by  the  red  man  whom  they  concerned, 
perished  with  the  race  that  knew  them.  We  shall  read 
of  homes  reddened  by  the  tomahawk  or  charred  by  the 
fagot,  but  not  of  the  wrongs  urging  the  wild  man  to 
defend  the  spot  where  his  wigwam  stood.  When  the 
plain  cabins  of  the  Dutch  first  rose  on  the  banks  of  the 
Hudson,  all  the  Indians  "on  the  Connecticut,  Hudson, 
Delaware,  and  Susquehanna  rivers,  were  in  subjugation  to 
the  Five  Nations,"1  whose  capital  near  the  placid  waters 
of  the  Onondaga  Lakes,  lay  but  a  day's  walk  or  two  from 
the  head -springs  of  the  Lacka wanna. 

In  1827,  Cusick  published  traditions  of  the  Tuscaroras 
running  from  "  twenty-five  hundred  winters  before  Colum- 
bus's  discovery  of  America"  down  to  the  days  of  Ma- 
homet. "  About  the  time  of  Mahomet's  career  in  602,  a 
great  Tyrant  arose  on  the  Kaunaseh,  now  Susquehanna 
River,  who  waged  war  with  the  surrounding  nations,  from 
which  it  appears  that  while  in  Africa,  Europe,  and  Asia 
revolution  succeeded  revolution,  empires  rose  on  the 
ruins  of  empires,  that  in  America  the  same  scenes  were 
acting  on  as  great  a  scale — cultivated  regions,  populous 
cities  and  towns,  were  reduced  to  a  wilderness,  as  in  the 
other  countries."2 

1  Smith's  History  of  New  York.  a  American  Antiquities,  sec.  ed.,  p.  349. 

2 


18  HISTORY    OF    THK 

The  Molmvks.  asserting  sovereignty  over  the  proud 
Pequots  and  Narragansetts,  numbering  many  hundred 
warriors,  and  exacting  tribute  from  all  the  New  England 
tribes  as  late  as  the  sixteenth  century,  claimed  the  wilder- 
ness from  the  Connecticut  to  Wyoming.  Massasoit,  the 
ever  warm  friend  of  the  Pilgrims,  and  his  son  Philip, 
afterward  celebrated  as  King  Philip,  had  frequent  con- 
flicts with  this  haughty,  powerful  tribe.  The  Dutch  gave 
them  the  name  of  Maquos.1  The  French,  between  whom 
war  was  almost  perpetual,  called  them  Iroquois.2 

When  Captain  John  Smith  was  carried  prisoner  to  the 
castle  of  Powhatan,  in  1607,  he  learned  that  the  "  Sas- 
que-sah-ha-noughs"  (Susquehanna  Indians),  living  upon 
the  river  by  this  name,  "are  a  Gyant  like  people  and  are 
thus  atyred,"  giving  in  his  work  a  graphic  illustration  of 
a  chief  "atyred"  in  all  the  gorgeous  style  of  the  wild 
man. 

The  Confederation  known  as  the  Six  Nations,  formed 
by  the  union  of  Mohawks,  Seneeas,  Onondagos,  Oneidas, 
Cayugas,  and  the  Tuscaroras.  was  not  only  formidable  in 
the  number  of  its  warriors,  but  so  democratic  in  the  char- 
acter of  its  organization,  and  so  terrible  in  the  exercise  of 
its  power,  that  few  new  settlements,  made  along  the  fron- 
tier, acquired  either  growth  or  age  without  harm  or  appre- 
hension. Its  power  was  absolute  and  unquestioned  ;  its 
government  a  limited  monarchy.  This  was  vested  in  a 
Great  Sachem  or  Chief,  directed  by  a  Council  of  Braves 
and  aged  warriors  noted  for  wisdom  and  bravery.  Its 
ever-burning  Council  Fire  blazed  from  the  plains  of 

1  This  word,  de-rived  from  molio.  signifies  to  eat. — Roger  Williams.  Or  Mo- 
hawks signifies  cannibals  or  man-eattrg,  among  other  tribes  of  Indians. — Trum- 
bull,  U.  S..  pp.  1-4  ;  Hutohinson,  vol.  i.,  p.  405.  This  tribe  was  situated  along  the 
Mohawk,  nnd  from  it  took  its  n;ime.  and  wa»  one  of  the  powerful  Five  Nations 
who  in  1713  were  joined  by  the  Tuskaroras,  a  large  tribe  from  North  Carolina, 
and  thence  known  by  the  name  of  Six  Nations. — Williamson's  North  Carolina. 
Tol.  i.,  p.  20i  Hon.  He  Witt  Clinton,  in  N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc.  Col.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  48,  says 
tbnt  the  Tuekaroras  joined  the  other  nations  in  1712. 

1  N.  T.  Hist.  Col,  vol.  ii.,  p.  44. 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  19 

Oh-na-qu-go,  while  the  edicts  and  wishes  of  the  assem- 
bled sachems,  carried  to  Manhattan's  shore  by  runners, 
were  known  and  respected  even  in  the  far-off  region  of 
the  magnolia  and  palmetto.  With  a  dialect  whose  strange 
intonations  bewildered  the  ear  of  the  white  man,  and 
whose  tongue,  destitute  of  labials,  was  so  diverse  and 
corrupted  from  the  parent  language,  that  many  of  the 
tribes  living  on  the  same  stream-  could  only  converse 
through  an  interpreter  j1  with  neither  books  nor  charts, 
with  no  history  but  the  wigwam's  lore,  no  guide  but  the 
moon's  gray  twilight,  no  valley  was  sunk  too  far  away  in 
the  mountains,  no  stream  stretched  its  tranquil  length 
through  grounds  too  remote  from  the  war-path  to  escape 
the  notice  of  men  clad  in  skins,  who  occupied  and  gave 
them  a  name. 

Charles  Miner,  in  his  really  unequaled  and  charming 
History  of  Wyoming,  remarks,  with  truth,  that,  "in  un- 
raveling the  tangled  web  of  Indian  history,  we  found  our- 
selves in  the  outset  extremely  embarrassed,  especially 
when  reading  the  pages  of  Hecke welder  and  other  writers 
of  the  United  Brethren.  The  removal  of  tribes  or  parts 
of  tribes  to  the  valley  ;  their  remaining  a  brief  period  and 
then  emigrating  to  some  other  place,  without  any  apparent 
motive  founded  in  personal  convenience,  consistency,  or 
wisdom,  perplexed  us  exceedingly,  as  we  doubt  not  it  has 
others," 

The  forest  between  the  Hudson  and  Lake  Huron  con- 
stituted the  sachemship  of  the  Iroquois,  or  Five  Nations, 
whose  "smokes"  ascended  from  the  mountains  of  Ver- 
mont to  the  head- waters  of  the  Delaware,  Susquehanna, 
and  the  Ohio.  The  number  of  their  warriors  in  1660  was 
estimated  by  Chalmers  to  have  been  twenty-two  hundred, 
while  Bancroft  puts  the  figure  at  ten  thousand.  Their 
language,  spoken  by  the  Pequods,  the  Narragansetts,  the 
Mohawks,  and  Dela  wares,  was  the  mother-tongue  that 

1  Jefferson. 


20  HISTOKY    OF    THK 

welcomed  the  Pilgrims1  and  plead  for  Smith  on  theChick- 
ahominy,  through  the  fervid  lips  of  Pocahontas.  Be- 
tween the  Delaware  and  the  Susquehanna,  in  the  narrow, 
green  plateau  of  the  LackaAvanna,  dwelt  a  division  of  the 
Lenni-Lenape — the  Minsi  or  Monsey  clan,  which,  like  the 
trilx>s  at  Wyoming,  stripped  of  their  glory  by  the  Iro- 
quois,  melted  away  into  other  tribes  strolling  through  the 
wilderness  as  conquerors.  The  Senecas  and  Oneidas, 
two  of  the  rudest,  most  vindictive,  as  well  as  energetic 
members  of  the  confederated  Nations,  took  the  most 
prominent  part  in  the  affairs  of  Wyoming.  Their  villages 
were  strung  around  the  lesser  lakes  feeding  Ontario, 
while  their  seat  of  government  was  located  at  Onondaga, 
now  Syracuse. 

"The  Onondagos,"  writes  Miner,  "were  eminent  as 
counselors,  distinguished  for  eloquence,  perhaps  revered, 
like  the  tribe  of  Levi,  as  the  priesthood  of  the  confedera- 
cy, to  whose  care  was  committed  the  keeping  or  kindling 
the  sacred  fire  around  which  their  most  solemn  delibera- 
tions were  held."  After  the  Senecas  and  Oneidas,  whose 
camp-fires  gave  a  savage  cheer  to  AVyoming  as  early  as 
1640, 2  had  removed  to  the  land  of  the  Iroquois,  feebler 
tribes,  which  had  lost  favor  with  the  civil  sachems  or  the 
great  war  chiefs,  were  concentrated  in  this  lovely  region 
under  the  immediate  eye  and  reach  of  royal  prerogative. 

Thus  came  the  Shawnees  from  southern  everglades, 
whose  names  are  yet  affixed  to  the  lower  portion  of 
Wyoming  Valley,  and  thus  the  Xanticokes,  in  1748,  came 
from  the  Vln'xakiucon  on  the  Chesapeake,  and  found 
shelter  on  the  Susquehanna  until  their  removal  to  Onon- 
daga in  17.V).  The  Delawares,  of  whom  Teedyuscung 
was  long  the  leading  sachem,  playing  an  important  part 
in  the  history  of  Wyoming,  taunted  as  women  and  treated 
as  vassals,  wen-  o/v/V/W  by  the  Six  Nations,  in  the  most 
imperious  manner,  into  this  valley  in  1742. 

1  Bancroft.  *  Miner. 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  21 

At  a  great  Council  held  at  Philadelphia,  July  12,  1742, 
where  over  two  hundred  warriors  were  assembled  to  talk 
with  the  Governor  of  Pennsylvania,  in  regard  to  the 
transgressions  of  the  Delawares,  who  had  sold  lands  on 
the  river  Delaware  fifty  years  before,  and  who  had  re- 
fused to  remove  from  the  same,  Canassategoe  addressed 
them  thus  :— 

"Cousins,  you  ought  to  be  taken  by  the  hair  of  your 
head  and  shak'd  severely  till  you  recover  your  semises 
and  become  sober.  Our  Brother  Onas'1  case  is  very  just 
and  plain  and  his  Intentions  to  preserve  friendship  ;  on 
the  other  Hand  your  Cause  is  bad,  your  Heart  far  from 
being  upright,  and  you  are  maliciously  bent  to  break  the 
Chain  of  friendship  with  our  Brother  Onas.  But  how 
came  you  to  take  upon  you  to  Sell  Land  at  all  ?  We 
conquered  You,  we  made  Women  of  you  ;  you  know  you 
are  Women,  and  can  no  more  sell  Land  than  Women. 
You  have  been  furnished  with  Cloaths  and  Meat  and 
Drink  by  the  Goods  paid  you  for  it,  and  now  You  want 
it  again  like  Children  as  you  are.  Did  you  ever  tell  Us 
that  you  had  sold  this  Land  in  the  Dark?  did  we  ever 
receive  any  Part,  even  the  Value  of  a  Pipe  Shank,  from 
you  for  it  ?  You  have  told  Us  a  Blind  Story  that  you 
sent  a  Messenger  to  Us  to  inform  Us  of  the  Sale,  but  he 
never  came  amongst  Us,  nor  we  never  heard  any  thing 
about  it.  This  is  acting  in  the  Dark,  and  very  different 
from  the  Conduct  our  Six  Nations  observe  in  their  Sales 
of  Land.  On  such  Occasions  they  give  Publick  Notice 
and  invite  all  the  Indians  of  their  united  Nations,  and 
give  them  a  share  of  the  Presents  they  receive  for  their 
Lands.  This  is  the  behaviour  of  the  wise  United  Na- 
tions, but  we  find  you  are  none  of  our  Blood.  You  Act  a 
dishonest  part  not  only  in  this  but  in  other  Matters.  Your 
Ears  are  ever  Open  to  Slanderous  Reports  about  our 


1  Penn  received  from  the  Indians  the  name  of  ONAS — i.  e.,  quill  or  pen,  from 
the  fact  that  he  governed  by  these  instead  of  guns. 


22  niSTOllY    OF    THE 

Brethren.  For  all  those  we  charge  You  to  remove  in- 
stanth/.  We  don't  give  you  the  liberty  to  think  about  it. 
You  are  Women  ;  take  the  Advice  of  a  Wise  Man  and 
remove  immediately.  You  may  return  to  the  other  side 
of  the  Delaware  where  you  came  from,  but  we  don't  know 
whether  Considering  how  you  have  demean' d  yourselves, 
you  will  be  permitted  to  live  there,  or  whether  you  have 
not  swallowed  that  Land  down  your  Throats  as  well  as 
the  Land  on  this  side.  We,  therefore,  Assign  you  two 
Places  to  go  to — either  to  Wyomin  or  SJiamokin.  You 
may  go  to  either  of  these  Places,  and  then  we  shall  have 
you  more  under  our  Eve,  and  shall  see  how  Y"ou  behave. 

•/  *> 

Don't  deliberate,  but  remove  away  and  take  this  Belt  of 
Wampum."1 

This  peremptory  command,  given  in  such  a  haughty 
and  offensive  manner,  admitting  of  no  evasion  or  appeal, 
was  obeyed  by  the  Delawares,  who  at  once  repaired  to 
the  Wyoming  hunting-grounds.  "Such,"  says  Chap- 
man, "was  the  origin  of  the  Indian  town  of  Wyoming. 
Soon  after  the  arrival  of  the  Delawares,  and  during  the 
same  season  (the  summer  of  1742),  a  distinguished  for- 
eigner. Count  Zinzendorf,  of  Saxony,  arrived  in  the  Valley 
on  a  religious  mission  to  the  Indians.  This  nobleman  is 
believed  to  have  been  the  first  white  person  that  ever 
visited  Wyoming.  He  was  the  reviver  of  the  ancient 
church  of  the  United  Brethren,  and  had  given  protection 
in  his  dominions  to  the  persecuted  Protestants  who  had 
emigrated  from  Moravia,  thence  taking  the  name  of  Mo- 
rariftn.s;  and  who,  two  years  before,  had  made  their 
first  settlement  in  Pennsylvania. 

"Upon  his  arrival  in  America,  Count  Zinzendorf  mani- 
fested a  great  anxiety  to  have  the  Gospel  preached  to  the 
Indians ;  and  although  he  had  heard  much  of  the  ferocity 
of  the  Shawanese,  formed  a  resolution  to  visit  them. 
With  this  view  he  repaired  to  TulpeTiocken^  the  residence 

1  CoL  Rec.,  vol.  iv.,  pp.  579-SO. 


LACKA.WANNA   VALLKY.  23 

of  Conrad  Weiser,  a  celebrated  interpreter  and  Indian 
agent  for  the  Government,  whom  he  wished  to  engage 
in  the  cause,  and  to  accompany  him.  to  the  Shawariese 
town. 

"  Weiser  was  too  much  occupied  in  business  to  go 
immediately  to  Wyoming,  but  he  furnished  the  Count 
with  letters  to  a  missionary  of  the  name  of  Mack,  and 
the  latter,  accompanied  by  his  wife,  who  could  speak  the 
Indian  language,  proceeded  immediately  with  Zinzendorf 
on  the  projected  mission. 

"The  Shawanese  appeared  to  be  alarmed  on  the  arrival 
of  the  strangers,  who  pitched  their  tents  on  the  banks  of 
the  river  a  little  below  the  town,  and  a  council  of  the 
chiefs  having  assembled,  the  declared  purpose  of  Zinzen- 
dorf was  deliberately  considered.  To  these  unlettered 
children  of  the  wilderness,  it  appeared  altogether  improb- 
able that  a  stranger  should  have  braved  the  dangers  of  a 
boisterous  ocean,  three  thousand  miles  broad,  for  the  sole 
purpose  of  instructing  them  in  the  means  of  obtaining 
happiness  after  deatJi,  and  that,  too,  without  requiring 
any  compensation  for  his  trouble  and  expense  ;  and  as 
they  had  observed  the  anxiety  of  the  white  people  to 
purchase  land  of  the  Indians,  they  naturally  concluded 
that  the  real  object  of  Zinzendorf  was  either  to  procure 
from  them  the  lands  at  Wyoming  for  his  own  use,  to 
search  for  hidden  treasures,  or  to  examine  the  country 
with  a  view  to  future  conquests.  It  was  accordingly  re- 
solved to  assassinate  him,  and  to  do  it  privately,  lest  the 
knowledge  of  the  transaction  should  produce  a  war  with 
the  English,  who  were  settling  the  country  below  the 
mountains. 

4 '  Zinzendorf  was  alone  in  his  tent,  seated  upon  a  bun- 
dle of  dry  weeds,  which  composed  his  bed,  and  engaged 
in  writing,  when  the  assassins  approached  to  execute 
their  bloody  commission.  It  was  night,  and  the  cool  air 
of  September  had  rendered  a  small  tire  necessary  to  his 
comfort  and  convenience.  A  curtain  formed  of  a  blanket 


24  HISTORY    OK    THE 

and  hung  upon  pins,  was  the  only  guard  to  the  entrance 
of  his  tent. 

"The  heat  of  his.fiiv  had  aroused  a  large  rattlesnake 
which  lay  in  the  weeds  not  far  from  it  ;  and  the  reptile, 
to  enjoy  it  more  effectually,  crawled  slowly  into  the  tent, 
and  passed  over  one  of  his  legs  undiscovered.  Without, 
all  was  still  and  quiet,  except  the  gentle  murmur  of  the 
river  at  the  rapids  about  a  mile  below.  At  this  moment 
the  Indians  softly  approached  the  door  of  his  tent,  and 
slightly  removed  the  curtain,  contemplated  the  venerable 
man,  too  deeply  engaged  in  the  subject  of  his  thoughts 
to  notice  either  their  approach,  or  the  snake  which  lay  ex- 
tended before  him.  At  a  sight  like  this,  even  the  heart  of 
a  savage  shrunk  from  the  idea  of  committing  so  horrid  an 
act,  and  quitting  the  spot,  they  hastily  returned  to  the 
town,  and  informed  their  companions  that  the  Great 
Spirit  protected  the  white  man,  for  they  had  found  him 
with  no  door  but  a  blanket,  and  had  seen  a  large  rattle- 
snake crawl  over  his  legs  without  attempting  to  injure 
him.  This  circumstance,  together  with  the  arrival  soon 
afterward  of  Conrad  Weiser,  procured  Zinzendorf  the 
friendship  and  confidence  of  the  Indians,  and  probably 
contributed  essentially  toward  inducing  many  of  them, 
at  a  subsequent  period,  to  embrace  the  Christian  reli- 
gion. 

"The  Count  having  spent  twenty  days  at  Wyoming 
returned  to  Bethlehem,  a  town  then  building  *by  his 
Christian  brethren  on  the  north  bank  of  the  Lehigh, 
about  eleven  miles  from  its  junction  with  the  Dela- 
ware."1 

In  the  recently  published  life  of  Count  Zinzendorf,  by 
Dr.  Gill,  of  London,  this  visit,  as  well  as  the  character 
of  the  Indians  at  Wyoming,  are  thus  described.  "The 
Count  as  missionary  to  give  these  Indians  a  practicable 
insight  into  the  religion  he  came  to  teach,  by  simply  lead- 

1  Miuei's  \Vyoiniiifj.  p.  I'.O. 


LACK  AW  ANNA    VALLEY.  1>0 

ing  a  Christian  life  amongst  them,  and  when  favorable 
impressions  had  thus  been  made  and  inquiry  was  excited, 
he  preached  the  leading  truths  of  the  gospel,  taking  care, 
not  to  put  more  things  into  their  heads  than  their  hearts 
could  lay  hold  of.  His  mode  of  approaching  them  was 
carefully  adapted  to  their  distinctive  peculiarities  ;  his 
last  tour,  in  the  autumn  of  1742,  after  crossing  the  primeval 
forest,  he  pitched  his  tent  a  short  distance  from  '  Wayo- 
mick '  the  capital  of  the  Shawanos,  and  remaint  d  there 
three  weeks,  observing  the  habits  of  the  people,  and  con- 
versing with  them,  so  as  to  make  himself  familiar  with 
their  ideas,  before  he  proceeded  more  directly  with  the 
special  object  of  his  mission.  He  found  this  tribe  to  be  one 
of  the  most  corrupt  and  most  opposed  to  the  truth.  They 
soon  concerted  violent  measures  to  get  rid  of  him,  and 
would  have  killed  him  and  his  companions,  but  that  his 
interpreter,  in  whose  absence  the  murder  was  to  have 
been  committed,  returned  unexpectedly  and  discovered 
the  plot.  Such  was  the  form  in  which  these  poor  sav- 
ages manifested  their  hatred  to  a  man  whose  motives 
they  could  not  comprehend,  and  whom  they  looked  upon 
as  an  intruder." 

When  Conrad  Weiser,  a  celebrated  Indian  interpreter, 
visited  Wyoming  in  1754,  he  reported  that  he  found  but 
three  Indian  towns  between  Shamokin  and  Wyoming — 
Os-ko-ha-ny,  Nis-ki-beck-on  (Nes copeck),  and  Woya- 
mock.1  He  also  reported  that  the  Indians  on  the  Susque- 
hanna  had  seen  some  of  the  New  England  men  that  came 
"as  spies  to  Woyamock  last  fall,  and  they  saw  them 
making  draughts  of  the  land  and  rivers."  2  The  Dela- 
wares  had  built  "Woyamock,  and  twelve  miles  higher  up 
the  river  a  town  called  Asseruglmey.  where  about  twenty 
Indian  Dela wares,  all  violently  against  the  English" 
were  found  at  this  time. 

This  village  stood  between  the  bold  precipice,  famed 

'Col.  Rec.,  vol.  vi.,  p.  35.  » Ibid.  "Ibid,  p.  66. 


2C 


IIISTOKY    OF    THE 


the  world  over  as  CampbdV  a  Led  ye,  and  the  mouth  of 
the   Lackawanna,  on   the  eastern  bank  of  the   Susque- 


hanna.  *    This,  like  all  their  villages,  was  small,  as  hunt- 

1  Taclmeckdorus,  a  friendly  Delaware  chief,  informed  the  Governor  of  Pennsyl- 


LACKAWANNA    VALLKY.  27 

ing  and  fishing  were  the  main  sources  of  supporting  the 
population,  naturally  averse  to  labor.  This  high  ledge, 
affording  an  uninterrupted  look-out  over  the  valley  be- 
low, was  used  by  the  Indians  not  only  thus  to  guard 
their  wigwams,  nestled  along  the  river,  but  to  kindle  their 
beacon-fires  at  the  evening  or  midnight  hour,  as  they  were 
wont  to  be  kindled  on  the  Scottish  highlands  in  4he  days 
of  Wallace  and  Bruce,  to  show  those  who  watched  the 
portentous  flame  the  presence  of  danger,  or  signal  the 
movements  of  an  enemy. 

While  AsserugJmey  was  the  Indian  name  of  the  town, 
Adjouqua  was  applied  to  the  lower  portion  of  the  Lack- 
awanna  Valley.  This  castle,  or  encampment,  was  the 
upper  one  of  the  Delawares  in  Wyoming.  It  was  a  point 
of  importance  because  of  its  favorable  location  for  trading 
purposes.  The  great  war-path  from  the  inland  lakes  of 
New  York  to  Wyoming  and  the  South,  and  the  trail  down 
the  Lackawanna  from  the  Minisink  homes  on  the  Dela- 
ware, passed  through  it.  Fur-parties,  and  dusky  chiefs, 
with  their  captives,  alike  followed  the  solitude  of  its  pas- 
sage through  these  true  Indian  lands. 

Capoose  village,  up  the  shallow  Lackawanna,  eight 
miles  from  Asserughney,  was  built  a  few  years  previous 
to  this,  and  occupied  by  the  Monseys,  who,  like  the  more 
numerous  Delawares,  paid  tribute  to  the  Tartars  of  the 
western  world  at  Oiiondaga.  These  villages  were  con- 
structed in  primitive  fashion,  from  green  bark,  boughs, 
and  weeds.  As  the  war-paths  passed  through  them,  they 

vania  in  February,  1756,  "that  Neshcopeckon  is  deserted  upon  a  rumor  that  pre- 
vailed among  them  of  your  coming  up  with  a  large  number  of  men  to  cut  them 
off,  and  they,  the  Delawares,  fled  to  Assarockney  and  higher  up,  having  there  a 
big  hill  on  one  side  and  the  Sasquehannah  on  the  other  side  of  the  present  town." 
Colonial  Records,  vol.  vii.,  p.  52.  The  number  of  warriors  at  Asserughney  was 
estimated  at  two  hundred. 

In  an  old  map  of  the  country  of  the  Six  Nations,  made  by  Guy  Johnson  in  1771, 
and  found  in  the  Documentary  History  of  New  York,  vol.  iv.,  p.  1091,  a  stream 
is  put  down  in  the  place  of  the  Lackawanna  as  Mac-ha-pon-da  creek.  Whether 
it  had  reference  to  Meshoppen  or  Lackawanua  is  difficult  to  determine  from  the 
map ;  probably  the  former. 


28  HIsTORY    OF    THE 

were  alike  threatened  hy  nomadic  tribes,  espousing  the 
interests  of  the  English  or  the  French.  This  led  the  Six 
Nations,  in  June,  17.">0,  to  depute  Og-Tia-gha-disha,  a 
chief  of  the  Iroquois,  living  on  the  north  branch  of  the 
Susquehanna.  to  ask  the  Provincial  Council  of  Pennsyl- 
vania to  build  a  fort  at  the  mouth  of  the  Lackawanna. 
At  a  Conference  hold  at  the  camp  at  Armstrong's,  June 
10,  17."><>,  between  Col.  William  Claphan  and  Og-ha-gha- 
disha,  the  chief  thus  addressed  the  colonel : — 

"My  Brother:  The  Iroquois  have  sent  me  as  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  whole  nation  to  treat  with  you  (producing 
a  belt  of  wampum),  and  will  ratify  all  my  contracts. 
Brother :  they  agreed  to  your  building  a  fort  at  Shamo- 
kin,  but  are  desirous  that  you  should  also  build  a  fort 
three  days'  journey  in  a  canoe  higher  up  the  North 
Branch  in  their  country,  at  a  place  called  Adjouquay, 
and  this  belt  of  wampum  is  to  clear  the  road  to  that 
place.  Brother:  If  you  agree  to  my  proposal  in  behalf 
of  my  nation,  I  will  return  and  immediately  collect  our 
whole  force  to  be  employed  in  protecting  your  people 
while  you  are  building  a  fort  in  our  country  at  Adjou- 
quay, whore  there  is  a  good  situation  and  fine  soil  at  the 
entrance  of  a  deep  rrc<k  on  a  level  plain  five  miles  ex- 
tending, and  t-lf-ar  of  WHxls.  Adjouqua  is  fourteen  miles 
above  \Vioming,1  and  old  women  may  carry  a  heavy  pack 
of  skins  from  thence  to  the  Minisink  and  return  to  Ad- 
jouqua in  two  nights.  My  Brother  :  The  Land  is  troubled, 
and  you  may  justly  apprehend  danger,  but  if  you  grant 
our  request  we  will  be  together,  and  if  any  danger  hap- 
pens to  you,  we  will  share  it  with  you.  My  Brother 
(laying  down  a  belt  of  wampum  folded  in  the  middle) : 


1  No  (illusion  1ms  over  boon  mmle  to  Adjowjuay  by  Wyoming  historians.  As- 
Famghney  and  Adjoir|iiny  are  both  spoken  of  by  different  Indians  as  being  ten, 
twelve,  :ni  I  fourteen  miles  above  Wyoming.  This  apparent  discrepancy  arose, 
not  from  the  fact  that  miloH  were  measured  by  walk*,  but  that  Wyoming  was 
located  either  at  the  Delaware,  Shawnecx,  or  Nanticokc  towns,  nil  crouched  along 
the  river  below  the  present  location  of  Wilkes  Barro. 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  29 

this  describes  your  path  to  Shamokin  ;  unfolding  the  belt 
and  extending  it  to  its  full  length,  this  is  your  road  to 
Adjouquay."1  Governor  Morris  thanked  the  chief  for 
his  kind  speech,  and  in  his  reply  said  :  "  Brother  :  I  am 
desired  to  build  another  fort  fourteen  miles  above  Wio- 
ming,  at  a  place  called  Adjouquay.  I  have  agreed  to  this 
request,  and  am  taking  measures  to  do  it  out  hand,  about 
which  I  shall  want  to  consult  yon." 

A  line  of  forts,  some  twenty  miles  apart,  stretched 
along  the  frontier  from  the  Potomac  to  the  Delaware  in 
1756-58.  Stroudsburg,  the  pretty  shire  town  of  the 
county  of  Monroe,  although  taking  its  name  from  Colonel 
Jacob  Stroud,  who  commanded  Fort  Penn  at  this  point 
during  the  Revolutionary  war,  received  a  definite  step 
toward  a  settlement  from  the  presence  of  one  of  the  most 
eastern  of  these  outposts,  erected  in  1757 — Fort  Hamilton. 

INDIAN   VILLAGE  OF  CAPOOSE. — TEEDYUSCUNG. 

The  low,  rich  bottom  on  the  western  border  of  the 
Lackawanna,  between  Providence  and  Scranton,  was 
known  to  the  earliest  explorers  as  "  Capoose  Meadow" — 
a  name  probably  given  to  perpetuate  the  memory  of  a 
civil  chief,  Capoose,  excelling  in  the  art  of  agriculture  and 
peace.  The  Monseys,  or  a  prominent  branch  of  that  tribe, 
left  the  Minisink  and  diffused  through  the  Lackawanna 
Valley,  as  early  as  any  authentic  history  comes  down  to 
the  white  man  from  the  Lenni-Lenapes.  As  this  village 
was  visited  in  1742  by  Count  Zinzendorf,  who  named  the 
county  Saint  Anthony's  Wilderness,3  its  date  and  occu- 
pancy must  have  been  considerably  anterior  to  this.  This 
tribe,  rudely  gashing  the  margin  of  the  Lackawanna  for 
the  reception  of  maize  as  early  as  1700,  appears  originally 
to  have  been  an  off-shoot  of  the  Delawares.  Their  history 


1  CoL  Rec.,  vol.  vii.,  pp.  157-8.  'Ibid.,  p.  159. 

*  Evens'  Map  of  1747.  in  Ebling's  History  of  Pennsylvania. 


30  JII8TOKY    OF    THE 

and  habits  are  so  assimilated  as  to  indicate  a  common 
origin.  Both  spoke  the  Algonquin  language  of  the  Iro- 
quois — a  language  abounding  in  vowels  and  fertile  in 
dialect— olx»yed  laws  emanating  from  the  same  source, 
and  both  are  intimately  associated  in  colonial  and  pro- 
vincial history.  The  Monseys,  like  every  tribe,  scattered 
along  the  Susquehanna  and  its  branches,  acknowledged 
the  supremacy  of  the  Onondaga  head,  and  were  so  noma- 
dic in  their  habits,  that  the  Pennsylvania  archives  often 
refer  to  Mousey  warriors  from  Wickalousin  (Wyalusing), 
Chokonot  (Cocheeton),  and  from  many  other  places  along 
the  rivers  of  the  Province.  When  the  Delawares  moved 
to  Ohio,  the  Monseys  accompanied  them,  and  ultimately 
dissolved  into  that  conquered  nation.  Vast  tracts  of  land 
was  claimed  by  the  Monseys  and  Delawares,  who  jointly 
occupied  New  Jersey,  the  Schuylkill  Basin,  and  the  rich 
valley  of  the  Delaware  in  164C.1  January  30,  1743, 
Capoose  gave  to  Moses  Totomy,  a  Delaware  of  some  local 
influence,  power  of  attorney2  to  sell  these  lands  to  the 
whites,  or  transact  any  other  business  with  the  Govern- 
ment relating  to  lands  claimed  by  him.  The  greater 
portion  of  these  domains  were  thus  sold  by  Capoose  to 
Governor  Penn  in  October,  1758.  Thus  the  upper  border 
of  Adjourquay,  exquisite  in  the  beauty  of  woods  veined 
with  springs  and  creeks,  whose  waters  ran  to  the  sea 
unruffled  save  by  rock  or  deer,  rich  in  game  and  fish,  easy 
of  conquest,  was  selected  by  Capoose  for  his  home  after 
the  English  began  to  encroach  upon  forest-lands  east  of 
the  Hudson.  The  hunting-grounds  of  Capoose  extended 
down  the  Lackawanna  and  Nay-aug,  and  up  the  river  to 
its  very  head-waters.  The  Scranton  race-course  is  within 
the  ancient  border  of  Capoose  ;  the  Diamond  mines  open 
upon  its  western  border. 

Their  burial-place,  long  since  smoothed  down  by  the 
plow,  lay  on  the  high  bank  of  the  Lackawanna,  a  quarter 

1  Bancroft.  f  Pennsylvania  Archives,  1758,  p.  341. 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY. 


of  a  mile  above  their  town,  where  vast  quantities  of  relics 
have  been  found  heretofore  by  the  antiquarian.  Although 
the  whole  valley  was  familiar  with  the  tawny  cabin  dwell- 


ers, long  before  the  blankness  of  their  lives  were  marked 
by  the  intrusion  of  the  pale-face,  ignorant  even  of  the 
topography  of  the  country,  this  clearing  or  meadow  of 


32  HISTORY    OF    THE 

Capoose,  was  the  main  one  found  in  the  valley  by  the 
pioneer,  where  the  wigwam  stood  on  a  cultivated  spot. 
And  even  here,  as  the  men  were  too  lazy  to  plant  the  corn, 
or  secure  the  scanty  harvest,  the  labor  fell  upon  the  more 
submissive  squaws.  The  Indian  artisans  were  skilled  in 
the  art  of  manufacturing,  from  Hint  and  stone,  implements 
for  agriculture  and  the  chase,  elegant  arrow-heads  and 
spear  points ;  the  rude  pebble,  and  sometimes  the  rarer 
silex  were  shaped  into  pipes  and  ornaments  of  symbolic 
meaning,  while  bowls  were  fashioned  from  dried  clay  with 
an  ingenuity  never  equaled  by  the  white  man  within  the 
stone  period.  While  their  war-path  ran  along  under  the 
sycamore  and  vine  fringing  the  bank  of  the  Lacka wanna, 
the  waters  of  the  stream,  sometimes  wild  in  its  uprisings, 
opened  a  favorite  highway  for  their  canoes  descending 
with  the  silent  warriors  to  the  plains  of  Wyoming. 

In  accordance  with  the  usual  habit  practiced  by  the 
Indians,  of  annually  burning  over  their  hunting-grounds 
with  a  view  of  destroying  the  smaller  trees  in  the  way  of 
securing  game,  there  was  remaining,  when  the  whites  ap- 
peared, little  underbrush  to  interfere  in  the  chase  around 
Capoose,  now  known  as  Tripp's  Flats.  The  forest  around 
it  was  stocked  with  game.  The  pheasant  whirred  from 
the  brake  in  conscious  security,  the  duck  rode  in  the 
stream  as  if  it  were  its  own,  the  rabbit  squatted  in  the 
laurel  in  drowsy  attitude,  the  moose  and  elk  stood  among 
the  pines  or  thundered  through  them  like  the  tread  of 
cavalry  ;  tin-  deer  browsed  daintly  upon  the  juicy  leaf, 
while  the  Moosic  slope,  unshorn  of  its  foliage,  offered  to 
the  panther  and  bear  but  little  shield  from  the  quick 
poised  arrow  of  the  woodsman.  The  beaver,  muskrat,  and 
otter,  enlivened  the  stream  in  whose  waters  fish  swam  in 
schools.  Perch,  pike,  and  even  shad,  filled  the  Lacka- 
wanna,  while  every  joyous  brook  from  the  mountain  was 
spotted  with  trout.  Hooks,  constructed  with  singular 
ingenuity  from  bone,  or  nets  woven  from  the  inner  bark 
of  tr.M's,  or  even  the  stone-tipped  spear,  which  they  threw 


LACKAWANNA     VALtES".  S3 

with  admirable  adroitness  at  a  distance  of  thirty  feet, 
while  the  fish  were  moving  rapidly,  never  failed  to  sup- 
ply the  wigwam  with  food. 

Capoose  himself  was  a  contemporary  of  Teedyuscung 
of  the  Delawares,  but  so  diverse  in  character  and  temper- 
ament, that  while  the  latter  was  ambitious  for  distinction, 
and  prominent  in  council  gatherings,  where  he  jointly 
looked  after  the  interests  of  the  Monseys  and  his  own 
tribe,  Capoose,  undecked  with  the  emblems  of  war,  lived 
in  amity  with  the  whites,  encouraged  the  culture  of  the 
soil,  and  left  behind  him  a  name  untarnished  with  either 
blood  or  carnage. 

Long  after  the  occupancy  of  this  region  by  Capoose, 
the  Moravians  indented  a  settlement  in  the  Province  above 
the  Blue  Mountain.  On  the  wild  waters  of  the  Ma-ha- 
noy,  where  it  joins  the  Lehigh,  eighteen  miles  above 
Bethlehem,  these  Indian  civilizers  encamped  in  1743. 
"  Except  the  erection  of  the  fort,"  says  Miner,  "  this  was 
the  first  settlement  in  a  northeast  direction  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, above  the  Kittatinny  Ridge  or  Blue  Mountain." 
This  was  about  forty  miles  from  Wyoming,  and  the  only 
road  intervening  was  the  narrow  path  of  the  warrior. 

Easton,  the  shire-town  of  Northampton  County,  admir- 
ably located  for  agricultural  purposes  or  traffic  with  the 
men  who  patrolled  the  forest,  laid  out  for  a  village  in 
1750,  and  Lower  Smithfield,  on  the  Delaware,  above  the 
present  village  of  Stroudsburg,  had  but  a  few  clearings 
opened  in  1751,  occupied  by  Charles  Broadhead,  Samuel 
Dupue,  John  McMichael,  John  Carmeckle,  John  Ander- 
son, James  Tidd,  Job  Bakehorn,  and  Henry  Dysert. 
These  were  held  under  proprietory  auspices.  No  attempt 
had  yet  been  made  to  settle  Wyoming  or  Lackawanna. 
The  hunter  and  trapper  coveting  furs,  more  bold  than  the 
emigrant,  unwilling  to  risk  his  life  for  a  doubtful  home, 
had  ventured  hither,  but  the  French  and  Indian  wars  of 
this  period  arrested  explorations,  "and  sent  alarm  into 
every  inland  settlement  within  the  Province. 


34  HISTORY    OF    THE 

Braddock's  defeat  in  1755,  disastrous  especially  to 
western  Pennsylvania,  illuminated  the  whole  frontier 
with  burning  cabins.  The  French,  promising  large  re- 
wards for  scalps  to  those  they  assured  should  again  be 
reinstated  upon  lands  already  sold  the  English,  readily 
won  over  the  red-men,  of  whom  thirty  were  reported  at 
Wyoming,  November  9,  1755,  and  "much  larger  bodies 
up  the  river  and  branches."  l 

The  Indians,  never  slumbering,  but  ever  ready  to  sway 
to  and  fro,  as  success  alternated  with  either  party,  in- 
dulging in  the  hope  that  the  English  might  be  expelled 
from  their  former  plains,  entered  into  an  alliance  with  the 
French  with  extraordinary  zeal  and  readiness.  Gnadden- 
hutten  was  burned  in  1755 by  "a  band  of  Indians  coming 
from  Wyoming,"2  and  the  plantations  of  Mr.  Broadhead, 
some  twenty-five  or  thirty  miles  from  Bethlehem,  of 
Frederick  Heath  on  PocJto  Pocldo  Creek,  and  Mr.  Calvers, 
McMichael's,  and  "houses  and  families  thereabouts  were 
attacked  by  the  Indians  at  daylight  and  burnt  down  by 
them.";  Mr.  Broadhead  estimated  the  number  of  war- 
riors at  two  hundred.  This  attack  upon  the  settlement 
was  marked  by  the  same  atrocity  characterizing  much  of 
the  border  warfare*.4  As  all  the  Susquehanna  and  Lacka- 
wanna  Indians  except  the  Monseys  were  disposed  for 
peace  in  the  spring  of  1757/'  Mr.  Miner  concludes  that 
the  One'ulas  and  Senekas  from  the  lakes  formed  the  war 
party.  Hostilities  had  been  suspended  against  the  Dela- 
wares  living  ''on  the  cast  side  of  the  northeast  branch 
of  the  Susquehanna,''0  when  they  were  complained  of 
as  being  the  most  troublesome,  and  of  whom  Conrad 
Weiser  reported  in  December,  1755,  as  being  alienated 
from  the  English  and  living  at  Schantowano  (\Vayomack) 
in  a  town  called  Nescopeckon. 

Had  not  the  Wyoming  Indians  caught  the  war  spirit 


1  CoL  Rcc.,  vol.  vi.,  p.  752.       *  Christian  Library.      *  Col.  Roc.,  vol.  vl,  p.  752. 
4  Ibid.,  p.  759.      » Ibid.,  p.  506.      •  Pennsylvania  Archives,  1748-175G,  p.  GC9. 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  35 

at  the  war-dance,  there  certainly  would  have  "been  no 
necessity  for  desiring  peace  on  one  side,  or  the  sus- 
pension of  hostilities  on  the  other.  Instead  of  being 
the  above-named  tribes  alone,  it  is  probable  that  the 
Delaware?,  exasperated  by  the  sale  of  Wyoming  lands  to 
Connecticut  people,  or  the  Monseys,  not  yet  desiring  peace, 
issuing  from  the  wigwams  of  Capoose,  were  jointly  guilty 
of  this  murderous  breach  of  good  faith  toward  the  United 
Brethren. 

In  1757,  Teedyuscung,  the  proud,  jealous  head  of  the 
Delawares,  requested  the  Governor  of  Pennsylvania  to  so 
fix  and  define  his  land  around  his  village  on  the  Susque- 
hanna  that  "his  children  can  never  sell  or  yours  ever 
buy  them,"  and  to  remain  so  forever.  He  also  asked  the 
Proprietary  Government  to  assist  him  in  building  houses 
at  Wyoming  before  corn-planting  time.  Ten  log  houses, 
"twenty  feet  by  fourteen  in  the  clear,  and  one  twenty- 
four  by  sixteen,  of  squared  logs,  and  dovetailed,"1  were 
built  for  him  in  1758.  To  check  or  crush  the  ambitious 
projects  of  New  England  men  about  forming  a  colony  at 
Wyoming,  influenced  their  erection  by  Pennsylvania 
quite  as  much  as  any  especial  regard  for  the  Delaware 
sachem.2  One  of  the  masons  was  killed  and  scalped  by 
six  hostile  Indians  while  engaged  at  this  labor. 

A  treaty  of  peace  was  held  at  Easton,  Novembers,  1756, 
with  great  pomp  and  ceremony,  when  the  conflicting  in- 
terests of  either  party  were  long  talked  over  and  har- 
moniously adjusted  amid  the  clattering  of  tongues  and 
the  smoke  of  the  calumet.  To  cripple  the  French,  against 
whom  the  English  had  formally  proclaimed  war  in  1756, 
or  rather  to  render  the  treaty  of  any  practical  value,  the 
Iroquois,  proud  of  their  strength,  never  wielded  in  vain, 
and  conscious  of  the  wrongs  of  their  fathers,  they  were 
impatient  to  redress,  had  first  to  be  reconciled  and  con- 
sulted. "The  influence  of  Sir  William  Johnson,"  says 

1  Pa.  A.rch.,  1758,  p.  8.  »  Col.  Rec.,  1754,  p.  60. 


36  HISTORY    OF    TIIK 

Miner,  "agent  of  Indian  affairs,  was  invoked  to  bring  the 
Six  Nations  to  a  now  Congress.  Neither  presents  nor 
promises  were  spared,  and  in  October,  1758,  there  was 
opened  at  Easton,  one  of  the  most  imposing  assemblages 
ever  beheld  in  Pennsylvania.  Chiefs  from  the  Six 
Nations  were  there,  namely,  Mohawks,  Oueidas,  Onon- 
dagas,  Cayugas,  Senecas,  and  Tuscaroras.  There  were 
also  present  Ambassadors  from  the  tributary  tribes  of 
Minisinks,  Mohicans,  Wapingers,  and  Shawanese.  Both 
the  Governors  of  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey  at- 
tended ;  with  Sir  William  Johnson  and  George  Crogan, 
Esq.,  sub  Indian  agent,  a  deputation  from  the  Provincial 
Assembly  at  New  Jersey,  and  a  large  concourse  of  eminent 
citizens  from  Philadelphia  and  the  neighboring  counties. 
Teedyuscnng  on  the  way  to  the  conference  having  fallen 
in  company  with  the  chief  who  had  commanded  the.  ex- 
pedition against  the  Gnadenhutten  and  Fort  Allen,  high 
words  arose  between  them,  when  the  king  raised  his 
tomahawk  and  laid  the  chief  dead  at  his  feet.  From  this 
moment,  though  vengeance  might  slumber,  he  was  a 
doomed  man,  a  sacrifice  alike  to  policy  and  revenge.  At 
the  Congress  Teedynscnng,  eloquent  and  of  imposing  ad- 
dress, took  at  first  a  decided  lead  in  the  debates.''  But 
one  of  the  chiefs  of  the  Six  Nations,  says  Chapman,  k'on 
the  other  side,  expressed  in  strong  language  his  resent- 
ment against  the  British  colonists,  who  had  killed  and 
imprisoned  one  of  his  tribe,  and  he,  as  well  as  other  chiefs 
of  those  nations,  took  great  umbrage  at  the  importance 
assumed  by  Teedyuscnng,  whom,  as  one  of  the  Dela- 
wares,  they  considered  in  some  degree  subject  to  their 
authority.  Teedyuscung,  however,  supported  the  high 
station  which  he  held,  with  dignity  and  firmness,  and  the 
different  Indian  tribes  at  length  became  reconciled  to  each 
other.  The  conference  having  continued  eighteen  days, 
and  all  causes  of  misunderstanding  between  the  English 
and  Indians  being  removed,  a  general  treaty  of  peace  was 
concluded  on  the  twenty-sixth  day  of  October.  At  this 


LACK  AW  ANNA    VALLEY.  37 

treaty  the  boundaries  of  the  different  purchases  made  from 
the  Indians  were  more  particularly  described,  and  they 
received  an  additional  compensation  for  their  lands, 
consisting  of  knives,  hats,  caps,  looking-glasses,  tobacco- 
boxes,  shears,  gun-locks,  combs,  clothes,  shoes,  stock- 
ings, blankets,  and  several  suits  of  laced  clothes  for  their 
chieftains,  and  when  the  business  of  the  treaty  was  com- 
pleted, the  stores  of  rum  were  opened  and  distributed  to 
the  Indians,  who  soon  exhibited  a  scene  of  brutal  in- 
toxication." 

Although  for  many  years  afterward,  the  tomahawk 
hung  over  the  Lacka wanna  and  Susquehanna  settlements 
like  a  shadow  over  the  mountain,  the  decline  of  the 
Indian  empire  in  America  can  be  dated  from  the  last- 
mentioned  treaty,  while  the  power  of  the  hitherto  victori- 
ous French,  then  marching  through  the  forest  with  General 
Forbes  to  attack  Fort  Du  Quesne,  was  so  suddenly 
shaken  by  the  desertion  of  their  allies,  as  to  result  in 
their  defeat  in  this  expedition,  and  their  final  overthrow 
in  Northern  America. 

During  this  year,  many  of  the  Dela  wares  and  Monseys, 
and  most  of  the  Shawanese  removed  from  the  valley 
westward. 

When  Teedyuscung  visited  Easton,  in  July,  1756,  Major 
Parsons  was  requested  to  keep  a  written  memoranda  of 
the  general  behavior  and  conversation  of  the  king,  from 
which  it  would  seem  that  the  high  position  assumed  and 
maintained  by  him  in  Council,  was  hardly  compatible  or 
consistent  with  his  ordinary  life.  "The  king  and  his 
wild  company  were  perpetually  drunk,  very  much  on 
Gascoon,  and  at  times  abusive  to  the  inhabitants,  for  they 
all  spoke  English  more  or  less.  The  king  was  full  of 
himself,  saying  frequently,  that  which  side  soever  he  took 
must  stand,  and  the  other  fall ;  repeating  it  with  insolence, 
that  he  came  from  the  French,  who  had  pressed  him 
much  to  join  them  against  the  English,  that  now  he  was 
in  the  middle  between  the  French  and  English,  quite 


38  HISTORY    OF    THE 

disengaged  from  both  sides,  and  whether  he  joined  with 
the  English  or  French,  lie  would  publish  it  aloud  to  the 
world,  that  all  nations  might  know  it.  That  he  was 
born  among  the  English,  somewhere  near  Trenton,  and  is 
near  fifty  years  old.  He  is  a  lusty,  raw-boned  man, 
haughty,  and  very  desirous  of  respect  and  command  ;  he 
can  drink  three  quarts  or  a  gallon  of  rum  a  day,  without 
being  drunk  ;  he  was  the  man  that  persuaded  the  Dela- 
wares  to  go  over  to  the  French,  and  then  attack  our  fron- 
tiers, and  he,  and  those  with  him,  have  been  concerned  in 
the  mischief  done  to  the  inhabitants  of  Northampton 
County.  Some  of  the  Indians  said,  that  between  forty  or 
fifty  of  their  people  came  to  Drahoga,  from  one  of  the  lakes, 
about  the  time  they  set  out,  in  order  to  fall  upon  our  in- 
habitants, and  addressed  Teedyuscung  to  head  them,  but 
he  told  them  he  was  going  to  the  Governor  of  Pennsyl- 
vania to  treat  with  him  concerning  a  peace,  which  the 
Mohocks  had  advised  him  to  do,  and  therefore  he  ordered 
them  to  sit  still  till  he  came  back  again  to  them.  The  towns 
people  observed  that  the  shirts  which  the  Indian  women 
had  on  were  made  of  Dutch  table-cloths,  which  it  is  sup- 
posed they  took  from  the  people  they  murdered  on  our 
frontiers.  The  king,  in  one  of  his  conversations,  said, 
that  only  two  hundred  French,  and  about  eighty  Indians 
were  at  tin?  lake,  where  most  of  the  English  are,  and  that 
he  could  bring  the  most  or  all  of  them  off.  The  Gover- 
nor invited  Teedyuscung  and  the  Indians  to  dine  with 
him,  but,  before  dinner,  the  king,  with  some  of  them, 
came  to  the  Governor,  and  made  the  Governor  four 
speeches,  giving  four  strings  of  wampum,  after  the  Indian 
manner:  one  to  brush  thorns  from  the  Governor's  legs, 
another  to  rub  the  dust  out  of  his  eyes  to  help  him  see 
clearly,  another  to  open  his  ears  and  the  fourth  to  clear 
his  throat  that  he  might  speak  plainly.  Teedyuscung 
claimed  to  be  king  of  ten  nations.  Being  asked  what  ten 
nations,  he  answered,  the  united  Six  Nations  :  Mohocks, 
Onondagoes,  Oneidas,  Senecas,  Cyugas,  and  Tuscaroras; 


LACKAWANNA    VALLKY.  39 

and  fjour  others,  Delawares,  Shawanees,  Mohickons,  and 
Munsies,  who  would  all  ratify  what  he  should  do.  He 
carried  the  Belt  of  Peace  with  him,  and  whoever  would, 
might  take  hold  of  it.  But  as  to  them  that  refused,  the 
rest  would  all  join  together  and  fall  upon  them. 

"All  the  Indians,  in  short,  would  do  as  he  would  have 
them,  as  he  was  the  great  man.  The  Governor  used  the 
same  four  ceremonies  to  Teedyuscung,  accompanied  with 
four  strings  of  wampum,  after  which  the  Governor  and 
Indians  went  to  dinner,  escorted  by  a  detachment  of  the 
First  Battalion  of  the  Pennsylvania  Regiment."1  Conrad 
Weiser,  the  interpreter,  was  lirst  introduced  to  Teedyus- 
cung at  this  time,  who,  after  watching  his  movements  a 
single  day,  reported  to  the  Council  "that  the  king  and 
the  principal  Indians  being  all  yesterday  under  the  force 
of  liquor,  he  had  not  been  favored  with  so  good  an 
opportunity  as  he  could  have  wished  of  making  himself 
acquainted  with  their  history,  but,  in  the  main,  he 
believed  Teedyuscung  was  well  inclined ;  he  talked  in 
high  terms  of  his  own  merit,  but  expressed  himself  a 
friend  to  this  Province."2  Teedyuscung,  at  this  council, 
was  alleged  to  have  been  the  instigator  of  the  Indian 
outrages  upon  the  whites  in  1755,  by  sending  large  belts 
of  wampum  to  various  tribes  on  the  war-path ;  but  the 
shrewd  informer  or  negotiator,  with  a  view  of  personal 
advantage  and  emolument,  informed  Governor  Morris 
that,  as  Teedyuscung  had  brought  on  the  war,  he  was 
the  only  person  that  could  eifect  a  peaceful  solution  of  all 
Indian  affairs.  To  do  this,  "  Teedyuscung  must  have  a 
belt  of  wampum  at  least  five  or  six  feet  long  and  twelve 
rows  broad ;  and  besides  the  belt,  he  must  have  twelve 
strings  to  send  to  the  several  chiefs,  to  confirm  the  words 
that  he  sends."  3 

1  Pa.  Arch..  1756,  pp.  724-6.      *  Ibid.,  1756,  p.  727.        » Ibid.,  1748-'56,  p.  730. 


40  HISTORY    OF    THE 


L.VCKAWANNA   RIVER   AND  VALLEY. 

The  Indians,  ever  having  an  extraordinary  appreciation 
of  the  beauties  of  nature,  have  given  to  their  rivers  and 
lakes,  their  mountains  and  valleys,  names  really  rich  and 
expressive.  The  transposition,  however,  of  many  of 
these  names  from  one  language  to  another,  has  so  cor- 
rupted and  ('hanged  their  primitive  expression,  that  much 
of  their  beauty  is  partially  lost  or  wholly  destroyed. 

In  the  Algonquin  or  Iroquois  vernacular,  the  valley  was 
called  Ad-jou-qu'iy ;^  in  the  harsher  dialect  of  the  Dela- 
wares,  where  no  adjectives  were  known,  spoken  by  all 
intervening  clans,  from  the  Minisinks,  on  the  Delaware, 
to  Shamokin,  it  was  known  as  Lee-ha-iigh-hunt*  or  Lee- 
haw-hanna,  pronounced  Lr-hr-hr-nr  (Lar-har-har-nar), 
the  letter  a  either  being  silent,  or  in  the  Indian  guttural 
having  the  sound  of  r.  In  succeeding  years,  the  modifi- 
cations and  construction  of  the  word  became  so  great  as 
to  become  at  length  a  matter  of  provincialism. 

Although  in  17o9  the  stream  was  designated  as  Lec-lia- 
Ufjh-hiint  by  the  Monseys  and  Delawares  living  upon  its 
banks,  who  complained  of  the  intrusion  of  the  whites  at 
its  mouth,  the  original  map  of  Westmoreland  (Wyoming), 
showing  the  Connecticut  surveys  in  1761,  records  it  as 
Lack-aw-na.  In  1702  the  stream  was  known  as  Lec-lia- 
wa-nock  ; *  in  1771  as  Lam-aw-wa-nak  ; 4  in  1772  as  Lock- 
o-worna;6  in  1774,  Lacka wanna  and  Lock-a-warna  ;6  in 
1778  as  /,«<?- u-wanack  ;7  in  1700  as  Ldk-u-wanuk  ;*  in 
1791  as  Lackaicanny.  From  1791  down  to  about  1837-' 8, 
it  was  recognized  both  in  private  and  official  parlance  as 
Lack-a-wanuock.  "Wannock"  lopped  off  by  gradual 

1  Col.  Hec.,  vol.  vii.,  p.  157.  *  Pa.  Arch.,  1759,  p.  421. 

.  *  Col.  ttec.,  vol.  ix.,  j).  7.  «  Pa.  Arch.,  1771,  p.  392. 

*  Westmoreland  KocorJa.  *  Ibid. 

'  British  Articles  of  Capitulation  of  three  forts  at  Lacuwanack,  July  4,  1778. 
1  Luzt-rne  County  Court  Records,  1700. 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  41 

habit  at  this  time,  became  obsolete,  and  wanna  took  its 
place,  thus  adopting,  as  far  as  the  idioms  of  language 
would  permit,  the  original  name  as  transmitted  to  us  from 
Teedyuscung.  Lackawanna  is  a  corruption  of  the  Indian 
"Lee-ha-ugh-hunt,"  or  "  Lee-haw-hanna  ;"  Lee-haw,  or 
Lee-Jia,  the  prefix,  signifies  the  forks  or  point  of  intersec- 
tion ;  hanna,  as  in  Susquehanna,  Toly-hanna,  Toppa- 
hannock,  Rappa-hannock,  Tunk-hannock  and  Tunk- 
hanna,  implies,  in  Indian  language,  a  stream  of  water. 
Hence  the  name,  Lar-liar-Tiar-nar,  or  Lackawanna,  the 
meeting  of  two  streams — a  name  highly  poetic  and  sweet 
sounding. 

The  valley  of  the  Lackawanna,  picturesque  and  salu- 
brious to  a  delightful  degree,  watered  by  a  stream  from 
which  it  derived  its  name,  lies  about  one  hundred  and 
thirty-eight  miles  northwest  of  New  York  in  a  direct  line. 
It  is  about  thirty-five  miles  in  length,  runs  south  and 
southeast,  and  in  its  general  topographical  configuration 
is  nothing  more  or  less  than  a  continuation,  or  rather 
extension,  of  the  northern  right  arm  of  the  classic  and 
celebrated  Valley  of  Wyoming  cut  in  twain  by  Campbell's 
Ledge.  The  most  northerly  deposit  of  stone  or  anthra- 
cite coal  found  in  America,  enriches  its  entire  border 
from  the  head  of  the  Lackawanna,  among  the  grand  old 
beech  and  maples,  down  to  its  very  mouth.  The  valley 
is,  in  fact,  a  gem  carved  out  of  a  mountain  of  coal. 
Rimmed  on  either  side  by  the  coal  and  iron-clad  Moosic,1 
beautiful  in  its  midwinter  or  summer  foliage,  wrapping 
its  jewels  in  harmonious  beds,  it  reposes  like  a  rough 
cradle -or  canoe,  tapering  off  at  its  upper  extremity  in  a 
narrow  unimportant  intervale.  A  few  miles  above  Carbon- 
dale,  the  valley,  already  narrowed  before,  is  more  suc- 
cessfully interrupted  by  a  succession  of  bowlders  or  hills, 
facetiously  termed  "  Hog's  Back,"  from  their  sharp,  bris- 

i  This  mountain,  a  low  ramification  of  the  great  Appalachian  chain,  takes  its 
name  from  the  Moos?  inhabiting  it  at  the  time  of  the  earliest  explorations  by  the 
whites. 


42  HISTORY    OF    THE 

tling  appearance.  Now  and  then  the  mountain  cleft  for  a 
trout  brook,  elbows  against  the  stream,  giving  its  waters, 
too  swift  and  shallow  for  navigable  purposes,  graceful 
and  gradual  fall. 

The  Lackawanna  River  rises  principally  in  Susque- 
hanna  County,  but  one  considerable  branch  emerges  from 
the  same  marshy  region  in  Wayne  that  sends  out  the 
Starucca,  Lacka waxen,  and  Equinunk  to  join  the  Dela- 
ware, which,  after  many  counter  and  diverse  movements 
for  a  distance  of  at  least  h'fty  miles,  pours  its  gentle 
volume  into  the  Susquehanna  at  Pittston.  Along  its 
banks,  shorn  of  the  fairest  portion  of  timber  by  the  lum- 
berman, the  landscape  is  singularly  fine,  with  slope,  field, 
and  village,  while  the  stream  itself  offers  to  the  eye  every 
variety  of  smooth  water,  pool,  and  rapids.  Here  its 
margin,  rock-bound  and  abrupt,  is  carved  from  the  low- 
browed cliff,  and  there  the  alluvial  meadow  or  cornfield 
ready  for  the  husbandman,  attests  the  luxurious  character 
of  the  soil. 

Along  the  central  and  lower  portion,  coal  of  the  finest 
quality  is  found  in  profusion,  interstratified  in  many 
places  with  iron-ore  of  the  most  desirable  and  productive 
character. 

The  confluence  of  the  Lackawanna  and  Susquehanna 
is  described  in  the  following  beautiful  lines  by  the  late 
Mrs.  Sigourney  :— 

THE    SUSQUEHANNA. 

ON  ITS    JUNCTION  WITH   THE   LACKAWANNA. 

BY    MRS.    6IGOCRNEY. 

Rush  on,  glad  stream,  in  tliy  power  and  pride 

To  claim  the  hand  of  thy  promised  bride, 

For  she  hastes  from  the  realms  of  the  darkened  mine, 

To  mingle  her  murmured  vows  with  thine: 

Ye  have  met,  ye  have  met,  and  your  shores  prolong 

The  liquid  tone  of  your  nuptial  song. 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  43 

Methinks  ye  wed  as  the  white  man's  son 

And  the  child  of  the  Indian  King  have  done. 

I  saw  the  bride  as  she  strove  in  vain 

To  cleanse  her  brow  from  the  carbon  stain ; 

But  she  brings  thee  a  dowry  so  rich  and  true 

That  thy  love  must  not  shrink  from  the  tawny  hue. 

Her  birth  was  rude  in  a  mountain  cell, 
And  her  infant  freaks  there  are  none  to  tell ; 
Yet  the  path  of  her  beauty  was  wild  and  free. 
And  in  dell  and  forest  she  hid  from  thee ; 
But  the  day  of  her  fond  caprice  is  o'er, 
And  she  seeks  to  part  from  thy  breast  no  more. 

Pass  on,  in  the  joy  of  thy  blended  tide, 
Through  the  land  where  the  blessed  Miquon  died. 
No  red-man's  blood  with  its  guilty  stain, 
Hath  cried  unto  God  from  that  broad  domain  ; 
With  the  seeds  of  peace  they  have  sown  the  soil, 
Bring  a  harvest  of  wealth  for  their  hour  of  toil. 

On,  on,  through  the  vale  where  the  brave  ones  sleep, 

Where  the  waving  foliage  is  rich  and  deep. 

I  have  stood  on  the  mountain  and  roamed  through  the  glen, 

To  the  beautiful  homes  of  the  Western  men ; 

Yet  naught  in  that  region  of  glory  could  see 

So  fair  as  the  vale  of  Wyoming  to  me. 

WAS   WYOMING   ONCE  A   VAST   LAKE? 

The  Kittatinny,  or  Blue  Ridge,  which  skirts  along  Penn- 
sylvania and  Virginia,  is  probably  one  of  the  most  even 
ranges  in  the  world.  At  its  base  it  rarely  exceeds  a  mile, 
while  its  summit,  covered  with  perpetual  foliage,  preserves 
an  uniformity  of  height  that  distinguishes  it  from  all  other 
mountains  stretched  across  the  country. 

At  some  period  in  the  world's  history,  this  ridge  doubt- 
less was  the  margin  of  a  vast  lake  into  which  ran  the 
waters  of  the  Chemung,  Chenango,  Delaware,  and  the 
Susquehanna,  and  over  mountain,  moor,  and  valley, 
rolled  one  common  wave.  Evidence  of  this  is  written  upon 
rock  and  mountain  around  us,  while  the  earth  from  the 


44  I1ISTOKY    OF    TUK 

hill-side  mine,  disdains  to  conceal  its  share  of  the  water 
spoils.  The  vast  quantity  of  petrified  shells,  alluvials, 
and  strata  of  shale  and  clay  and  organic  remains,  found 
along  the  Delaware,  Laeka  wanna,  and  Susquehanna,  and 
many  other  valleys,  and  the  character  of  these  rivers,  all 
running  in  a  transverse  or  cross  direction,  have  been 
compelled  to  wash  out  by  slow  and  triumphant  progress, 
or  rupture  the  obstructing  heights  to  find  their  way  to 
the  sea,  suggests  the  inquiry,  Were  they  not  once  the 
bottoms  of  immense  lakes  I  And  did  not  the  finny  tribes, 
the  huge  serpent,  and  the  whale,  sport  in  these  inland  salt 
waters  in  times  of  yore  ? 

No  one  can  carefully  examine  the  strata  of  the  moun- 
tains of  the  United  States,  especially,  the  Alleghanies  or 
Blue  Ridge,  or  even  glance  at  the  map,  without  finding 
a  fact  existing  in  no  other  part  of  the  world,  that  all  their 
principal  ridges  cross  the  great  as  well  as  the  lesser  rivers, 
instead  of  running  parallel  with  them.  The  Delaware, 
Susquehanna,  Potomac,  and  Shenandoah,  all  issue  from 
the  steep  mountains  of  the  Blue  Ridge. 

One  of  the  most  distinguished  authors  and  eminent 
naturalists,  C.  F.  Volney,  who  visited  Harper's  Ferry  in 
1790,  and  who  gave  the  subject  great  attention  and  re- 
search, believed  that  "  the  chain  of  the  Blue  Ridge  in  its 
entire  state,  completely  denied  the  Potomac  a  passage 
onward,  and  that  then  all  the  waters  of  the  upper  part  of 
the  river,  having  no  issue,  formed  several  considerable 
lakes,  which  spread  themselves  between  the  Blue  Ridge 
and  the  chain  at  Kittatinny,  not  only  to  the  Susquehanna 
and  Schuylkill,  but  beyond  the  Schuylkill,  and  even  to 
the  Delaware.  It  is  obvious  that  the  lakes  flowing  off 
must  have  changed  the  whole  face  of  the  lower  country. 
Several  branches  having  at  once  or  in  succession,  given  a 
passage  to  the  streams  of  water  now  called  James,  Poto- 
mac, Susquehanna,  Schuylkill,  and  Delaware,  their 
general  and  common  reservoir  was  divided  into  as  many 
distinct  lakes,  separated  by  the  risings  of  the  ground  that 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  45 

exceeded  this  level.  Each  of  these  lakes  had  its  particular 
drain,  and  this  drain  being  at  length  worn  down  to  the 
lowest  level,  the  land  was  left  completely  uncovered. 
This  must  have  occurred  earlier  with  the  James,  Susque- 
hanna,  and  Delaware,  because  their  basins  are  more 
elevated,  and  it  must  have  happened  more  recently  with 
the  Potomac,  for  the  opposite  reason,  its  basin  being  the 
deepest  of  all." 

How  far  the  Delaware  then  extended  the  reflux  of  its 
waters  toward  the  east,  he  could  not  ascertain  ;  "  however, 
it  appears  its  basin  was  bounded  by  the  ridge  that  ac- 
companies its  left  bank  ;  and  which  is  the  apparent  con- 
tinuation of  the  Blue  Ridge  and  North  ^fountain.  It  is 
probable  that  its  basin  has  always  been  separate  from 
that  of  the  Hudson,  as  it  is  certain  that  the  Hudson  has 
always  had  a  distinct  basin,  the  limit  and  mound  of  which 
is  above  West  Point,  at  a  place  called  the  Highlands."  1 

Schoolcraft  and  Professor  Beck,  and  other  eminent 
writers,  also  subscribe  to  this  theory.  The  basin  of  the 
Lackawarma,  viewed  from  the  summit  of  the  mountain 
back  of  Scranton,  or  from  one  of  the  more  elevated  points 
farther  up  the  valley,  exhibits  the  internal  appearance  and 
form  of  a  lake  so  plainly,  that  the  idea  of  the  ancient  ex- 
istence of  one  here  is  indubitably  forced  upon  the  observer. 
Other  circumstances  tend  to  confirm  this  impression,  as 
the  heaps  of  detached  rock  strewn  below  many  of  the 
gorges,  especially  at  the  Delaware  Water  Gap,  where  the 
waters  were  held  back  until  the  great  embankment  gave 
way  before  the  weight  of  the  vast  body  of  water  above, 
or  by  attrition,  convulsion,  or  glacier  action,  and  brought 
down  all  that  stratum  of  earth  and  mud  which  now  gives 
such  agricultural  strength  and  value  to  the  shores  of  the 
lower  Delaware. 

A  few  yards  above  the  bridge,  across  the  Susquehanna 
at  Pittston,  can  be  seen  a  large  rock  of  many  thousand 

1  American  Antiquities,  pp.  352-373.  . 


46  HISTORY    OF    THE 

tons  in  weight,  of  which  Mr.  Charles  Miner  thus  writes  : 
"Standing  on  the  hank  of  the  river,  a  little  below  the 
month  of  the  Laekawanna,  and  looking  northward,  it  ap- 
pears as  if  by  some  power  little  short  of  omnipotent,  the 
solid  rock1  had  been  cloven  down  near  a  thousand  feet 
to  open  a  passage  for  the  water.  Being  on  the  river-bank 
twelve  years  ago,  with  the  able  and  lamented  Mr.  Packer, 
then  chairman  of  the  senatorial  committee,  to  view  the 
coal  region  of  Lu/erne,  he  pointed  to  a  huge  mass  of  bro- 
ken and  contorted  rock,  evidently  out  of  place,  which 
now  lies  at  Pittston  Ferry,  between  the  canal  and  river, 
and  expressed  the  decided  and  not  improbable  opinion, 
that  in  the  convulsion  of  nature  which  separated  the 
mountain  above  us,  this  mass  must  have  been  torn  away 
and  borne  by  the  rushing  flood  to  its  present  resting- 
place.  Twenty  miles  below,  where  the  Susquehanna 
takes  leave  of  the  plains,  the  mountains  are  equally  lofty 
and  precipitous.  In  many  places  the  rocks  distinctly  ex- 
hibit the  abrasions  of  water  many  feet  above  the  highest 
pitch  to  which  the  river  has  ever  been  known  to  rise, 
going  to  show,  that  at  some  very  remote  period,  this  had 
been  a  lake,  and  indicating  that  there  had  been  a  chain 
of  lakes  probably  along  the  whole  line  of  the  stream. 
Banks  of  sand-hills,  covered  with  rounded  stone,  mani- 
festly worn  smooth  by  attrition,  similar  stones  being 
found  wherever  wells  are  sunk,  tend  to  confirm  the  opin- 
ion. The  soil  is  chiefly  alluvial,  and  the  whole  depth  and 
surface,  so  far  as  examined,  show  great  changes  by  the 
violent  action  of  water."5 

The  existence  of  this  lake  or  lakes,  made  by  the  inter- 
vening hills,  explains  the  appearance  of  the  several  stages 
or  flats  observed  along  the  Wyoming  plains  and  the 
Lackawanna,  and  even  at  Cobb's  Ciap,  where  the  roaring 
brook  flees  from  the  Pocono,  as  if  the  water  once  had  a 
greater  volume  than  now,  or  was  higher  at  one  period 

1  Campbell's  Ledge.  *  Miner's  History  of  Wyoming,  p.  12. 


LACKAWANNA  VALLKY.  47 

than  at  another,  and  by  some  means  was  drained  off  in 
such  a  mariner  that  the  receding  wave  made  a  new  mark 
of  embankment,  indicating  the  original  height  of  the  shore 
of  these  lakes  and  rivers. 

On  the  very  summit  of  the  Pocono1  Mountain,  about 
twenty  miles  east  of  the  Lackawanna,  lies  a  broad  marsh, 
elevated  many  hundred  feet  above  the  Delaware  Water 
Gap,  1,969  feet  above  tide-water,  covered  in  a  few  places, 
as  can  be  seen  from  the  passing  cars,  with  a  deep  strata 
of  sand,  similar  to  that  found  on  the  sea-shore,  which,  in 
spite  of  the  drainage  of  the  water  around  it  by  these  great 
breaks  in  the  mountain,  has  maintained  its  sedentary  and 
original  position,  while  the  subsiding  waters  hollowed 
out  the  valleys  and  formed  cascades  of  beauty,  which 
marked  and  enlivened  the  wild  landscape  long  after  the 
Noachian  deluge. 

Mr.  Schoolcraft,  well  known  to  the  reading  public  as 
one  of  the  most  accurate  and  entertaining  writers  and  ex- 
plorers in  American  antiquities,  corroborates  this  theory, 
and  asks  the  question,  "  May  we  not  suppose  that  the 
great  northern  lakes  are  the  remains  of  such  an  ocean  ?"2 
If  not  so,  they  were  probably  the  mere  remnant  of  a  great 
inland  sea. 

The  weight  of  the  accumulated  waters,  coming  from  the 
north,  assisted  perhaps  by  volcanic  agency,  possibly  made 
the  various  gaps  in  the  mountains,  and  as  the  liberated 
waters  took  up  the  line  of  march  to  the  sea,  the  whole 
geological  features  of  the  lower  country  acknowledged 
the  power  of  the  watery  plowshare.  \Vhether  this  abyss 
boiled  with  a  heat  far  beyond  the  temperature  of  white- 
hot  iron,  from  the  immense  furnaces  below  over  the  seams 
of  liquid  coal,  or  at  what  period  this  watery  or  eruptive 

1  Pocono  is  the  name  given  by  the  white  people  to  the  mountain  dividing  the 
"Delaware  from  the  Susquehanna,  after  the  Indian  name  of  the  stream  that  flows 
from  it,  called  by  them  Poco-hanne,  which  signifies  a  stream  issuing  from  a  moun- 
tain. "  Hanne  "  means  flowing  water ;  Tunk-hanne,  the  smallest  among  other 
streams  in  tlie  same  locality.  Tope-hnnne  (Tolyhannah),  alder  creek  or  stream.  &c. 

*  American  Antiquities,  p.  367. 


48  HISTOKT    OF    THE 

conquest  transpired,  lies  so  far  beyond  the  earliest  times 
of  any  written  or  traditional  history,  that  no  explanation 
or  data  is  known  other  than  that  found  written  upon  the 
terraced  rock  along  the  sides  and  bottoms  of  these  ancient 
mountain  lakes. 

Contemporary  with  these  phenomena,  or  in  more  pre- 
Adamie  times,  it  is  evident  that  the  topographical  charac- 
ter of  the  Lackawanna  Aralley  was  essentially  changed. 
The  geological  conformation  of  the  country  along  the 
stream  ;  the  character,  form,  and  direction  of  the  Alle- 
ghany  range  thrown  across  southern  New  York  ;  its  mean 
altitude  near  the  Great  Bend  of  the  Susquehanna  River 
being  but  little  if  any  greater  than  at  Tioga  Point ;  the 
comparative  freshness  and  shape,  as  well  as  the  confu- 
sion of  all  the  strata  of  earth,  stone,  and  coal,  along  the 
Lackawanna,  with  the  general  appearance  of  the  country 
traversed  by  the  Susquehanna  and  Lackawanna,  afford 
abundant  evidence  of  the  correctness  of  this  conclusion. 

Instead  of  breaking  off  so  abruptly  from  its  apparent 
course  at  this  point,  and  cautiously  feeling  its  way  far 
along  the  border  of  the  mountains,  until  it  reached  Tioga 
Point,  and  then  carrying  its  current  through  a  passage 
ruptured  through  successive  ridges,  until,  with  all  its 
beauty  and  boldness,  it  opened  into  the  slackened  waters 
of  Wyoming,  it  probably  struck  boldly  down  into  a 
channel  now  closed  by  some  great  upheaval  or  disturb- 
ance in  the  geological  world,  and  sought  the  valley  where 
now  the  Lackawanna  mingles  with  the  waters  of  the 
Susquehanna. 

Trace  up  the  Susquehanna,  step  by  step,  to  the  High- 
lands of  New  York,  or  down  through  its  narrow  passage 
to  Wyoming,  and  not  a  single  vein  or  spar  of  coal  is  visi- 
ble ;  go  up  to  the  Lackawanna,  modest  in  its  volume,  to 
the  indicated  point,  and  more;  than  midway  from  the 
mouth  of  the  stream,  coal  deposits,  grand  in  their  charac- 
ter and  exhaustless  in  their  creation,  everywhere  appear  ; 
all  of  which  confirms  the  theory,  that,  whatever  local 


LACKAWAXNA    VALLEY.  49 

causes  or  convulsions  once  effected  the  mineralogical  fea- 
tures of  the  valley,  the  wave  of  the  ocean,  or  the  waters 
of  a  much  larger  stream  than  the  Lackawanna  once  occu- 
pied its  place. 

No  less  than  five  veins  of  coal  have  been  washed  away 
from  the  eastern  side  of  the  Lackawanna,  a  mile  above 
Scranton,  by  the  propelling  flood  of  olden  time,  and  their 
crushed  and  blackened  deposition  found  in  the  alluvial 
banks  below.  The  city  of  Scranton,  or  the  old  village 
proper,  embracing  the  sand  banks,  stands  upon  such  a 
singular  deposit. 

Very  many  of  our  mountain  notches  appear  like  vol- 
canic outlets.  The  evidence  of  subterranean  or  oceanic 
volcanic  fires  exists  to-day  in  the  ocean,  and  now  and  in 
a  moment's  clamor,  make  food  of  coasts  and  cities.  Their 
existence  explain  why  the  carboniferous  and  even  the 
granitic  strata  of  rock  are  inclined  to  the  horizon  in  angles 
of  forty-five  degrees  and  upward  in  so  many  of  the  moun- 
tain ranges  throughout  the  coal  basins  of  Pennsylvania, 
and  which  is  so  especially  noticed  and  delineated  in  the 
huge  ledge  of  rocks  thus  sloping  in  distinct  lamination  or 
layers  in  the  well-known  notch  of  the  mountain  between 
Providence  and  Abington,  about  two  miles  northwest  of 
Scranton,  called  "Leggett's  Gap." 

WAR-PATHS. 

One  of  the  three  long-trodden  paths  of  the  warrior  lead- 
ing out  of  Wyoming,  led  eastward  to  Coshutunk  (Co- 
checton),  a  small  Indian  settlement  upon  the  shore  of  the 
upper  Delaware.  Leaving  the  valley  at  AsserugJiney 
village,  standing  at  the  mouth  of  the  stream,  it  followed 
the  eastern  bank  of  the  Lackawanna  up  to  Springbrook, 
Stafford  Meadow,  and  Nayaug  or  Roaring  Brook,  cross- 
ing the  last  two  named  ones  a  short  distance  below  the 
present  location  of  Scranton,  and  passed  into  the  Indian 
town  of  Capoose.  Here  one  path  led  off  to  Oquago,  New 


50  ins'jMKY   OF  TIM: 

York  (now  Windsor),  about  forty  miles  distant,  through 
Leggett's  Gap  and  the  Abingtonian  wilderness,  while  the 
other,  diverging  from  Capoose  in  an  easterly  direction, 
plunged  boldly  into  tin-  forest,  passing  along  where  Dun- 
more  now  stands,  up  the  mountain  slope  to  its  very  sum- 
mit. This  foot-path  crossed  the  Moosic  range  near  the 
residence  of  the  late  John  Cobb,  Esq.,  and  thence  through 
Little  Meadows,  in  Salem,  and  the  low  Wallenpaupack 
country  beyond.  This  trail  seldom  ran  through  the  gaps, 
but  it  generally,  like  many  of  their  war-paths,  kept  the 
higher  ground,  or  where  the  woods  were  less  dense,  because 
the  warriors,  agile  and  quick-sighted  on  the  march,  pre- 
ferred climbing  orer  a  considerable  elevation,  to  the  labor 
of  cutting  a  trail  through  more  level  ground,  or  deep 
wooded  ravines,  with  their  stone  hatchets ;  besides  this, 
overlooking  points  were  chosen  invariably,  so  that  upon 
entering  or  leaving  a  valley,  they  could  better  discover 
the  approach  or  presence  of  an  enemy.  Of  this  narrow 
trail,  worn  to  the  depth  of  several  inches  in  many  places 
on  the  mountains  where  roots  and  rocks  offered  no  resist- 
ance to  passing  moccasins,  few  indeed,  are  the  remaining 
traces  where  the  warrior  and  the  war-song  enlivened  the 
way  but  a  little  over  a  century  ago.  Near  the  mountain 
spring,  however,  this  old  Indian  path  for  several  hundred 
yards  to  tin*  east  of  it,  was  so  deeply  indented  as  to  show 
its  depth  and  general  outline  even  to-day. 

The//Y.v/  rude  wagon-road  cut  out  and  opened  from  the 
Hudson  Kiver  to  Wyoming  Valley,  for  the  pack-horse  or 
wheels,  followed  this  track  the  greater  portion  of  the  way, 
because  of  its  being  the  most  direct  route  from  Connecti- 
cut to  the  backwoods  of  Lackawanna  and  Wyoming,  then 
called  Westmoreland  by  the  Yankees,  who  began  to  peo- 
ple it. 

INDIAN   SPRING. 

I 

Almost  upon  the  very  summit  of  the  Moosic  Mountain, 
between  the  valley  and  Cobb's  settlement,  by  the  side  of 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  51 

this  old  trail,  bubbles  from  the  earth  a  large  spring,  called 
the  "  Indian  Spring."  No  matter  how  parched  the  lips 
of  mother-earth — how  shrunken  the  volume  of  streams 
elsewhere,  this  spring,  indifferent  to  drought  or  flood,  in 
summer  or  winter,  is  ever  filled  to  its  brim  with  cold  pure 
water. 

Away  from  the  world's  hot  pulse  ;  hemmed  in  by  the 
pine  whose  waving  tops  give  partial  entrance  to  the  noon- 
day sun,  and  once  gave  shelter  to  rovers  of  the  wilderness 
strolling  from  tribe  to  tribe  with  friendly  or  avenging 
tomahawk,  and  lifting  its  fountain  as  it  does  almost  from 
the  very  top  of  a  high  vertical  ledge,  running  nearly  a 
mile  before  it  opens  into  Cobb'  s  Gap,  this  spring  from  its 
peculiar  location,  has  much  to  render  it  attractive  and 
romantic  to  the  visitor.  It  forms  one  of  the  lesser  tribu- 
taries of  Roaring  Brook,  from  whence  Scranton  is  sup- 
plied with  water. 

In  July,  1788,  two  persons  were  killed  at  this  point. 
Fleeing  from  Wyoming  Valley  resounding  with  the  exult- 
ant shout  of  the  tories  and  their  red  auxiliaries,  and  the 
faint  cries  of  the  captives  reserved  for  ransom  or  torture, 
they  bent  over,  thirsty  and  exhausted,  for  the  invigorating 
draught.  They  never  rose  from  their  knees.  The  hatchet 
of  the  savage,  intently  watching  the  victims,  new  from  the 
ambush ;  the  stony  knife  dripped  through  their  scalps, 
and  the  wolves  at  night  made  long  and  loud  their  carnival 
over  the  unresisting  dead. 

A  large  red  rock  rims  one  side  of  this  spring,  whose 
crimson  color  tradition  imputes  to  the  blood  of  the  victims 
thus  immolated. 

INDIAN   EELICS   AND   FORTIFICATIONS. 

No  evidence  is  found  of  Indian  forts  along  the  Lacka- 
wanna,  although  there  existed  one  or.  more  a  few  miles 
below  its  mouth,  one  of  which  is  thus  described  by  Chap- 
man in  his  History  of  Wyoming  : — 


52  HISTORY    OF    TI1K 

"  In  the  valley  of  Wyoming,  there  exist  some  remains 
of  Indian  fortifications,  which  appear  to  have  been  con- 
structed by  a  race  of  people  very  different  in  their  habits 
from  those  who  occupied  the  place  when  first  discovered 
by  the  whites.  Most  of  these  ruins  have  been  so  much 
obliterated  by  the  operations  of  agriculture,  that  their 
forms  can  not  now  be  distinctly  ascertained.  That  which 
remains  the  most  entire  was  examined  by  the  writer  dur- 
ing the  summer  of  1817,  and  its  dimensions  carefully  as- 
certained ;  although,  from  frequent  plowing,  its  form 
had  become  almost  destroyed.  It  is  situated  in  the  town- 
ship of  Kington,  upon  a  level  plain  on  the  north  side  of 
Toby's  Creek,  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  from  its 
bank,  and  about  a  half  mile  from  its  confluence  with  the 
Susquehanna.  It  is  of  an  oval  or  elliptical  form,  having 
its  longest  diameter  from  the  northwest  to  the  southeast, 
at  right-angles  to  the  creek,  three  hundred  and  thirty- 
seven  feet,  and  its  shortest  diameter  from  the  northeast  to 
the  southwest,  two  hundred  and  seventy-two  feet.  On 
the  southwest  side,  appears  to  have  been  a  gateway  about 
twelve  feet  wide,  opening  toward  the  great  eddy  of  the 
river,  into  which  the  creek  falls.  From  present  appear- 
ances, it  consisted,  probably,  of  only  one  mound  or  ram- 
part, which,  in  height  and  thickness,  appears  to  have  been 
the  same  on  all  sides,  and  was  constructed  of  earth  ;  the 
plain  on  which  it  stands,  not  abounding  in  stone. 

"  On  the  outside  of  the  rampart  is  an  intrenchment  or 
ditch,  formed,  probably,  by  removing  the  earth  of  which 
it  is  composed,  and  which  appears  never  to  have  been 
walled.  The  creek,  on  which  it  stands,  is  bounded  by  a 
high  steep  bank  on  that  side,  and  at  ordinary  times  is  suf- 
ficiently deep  to  admit  canoes  to  ascend  from  the  river  to 
the  fortification.  When  the  first  settlers  came  to  Wyo- 
ming, this  plain  was  covered  with  its  native  forest,  con- 
sisting principally  of  oak  and  yellow  pine  ;  and  the  trees 
which  grew  in  the  rampart  and  in  the  intrenchment,  are 
said  to  have  been  as  large  as  those  in  any  other  part  of 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  53 

the  valley ;  one  large  oak,  particularly,  upon  being  cut 
down,  was  ascertained  to  be  seven  hundred  years  old. 
The  Indians  had  no  traditions  concerning  these  fortifica- 
tions, neither  did  they  appear  to  have  any  knowledge  of 
the  purposes  for  which  they  were  constructed.  They 
were,  perhaps,  erected  about  the  same  time  with  those 
upon  the  waters  of  the  Ohio,  and  probably  by  a  similar 
people,  and  for  similar  purposes." 

Another  fortification  existed  on  Jacob' s  Plains,  or  the 
upper  flats  in  Wilkes  Barre.  Its  situation  is  the  highest 
part  of  the  low  grounds,  so  that,  only  in  extraordinary 
floods,  is  the  spot  covered  with  water."  1  This  fort  seems 
to  have  been  of  about  the  same  in  form,  shape,  and  size, 
to  that  described  by  Chapman,  and  in  its  interior,  near  the 
southern  line,  the  ancient  people  all  concur  in  stating  that 
there  existed  a  well.8 

At  the  confluence  of  the  Lackawanna  with  the  Susque- 
hanna,  Indian  graves  and  remains  of  wigwam  life  were 
found  in  great  abundance  sixty  years  ago.  Skeletons  ex- 
humed by  the  waters  of  the  spring  freshets,  lay  in  such 
numbers  along  the  banks  of  the  rivers,  and  so  familiar 
had  they  become  to  the  thoughtless  passer,  that  boys  were 
often  seen  with  a  thigh-bone  in  each  hand  drumming 
Yankee  Doodle  upon  the  whitened  skulls,  thus  found 
upon  the  plain  around  them.  Some  of  these  were  doubt- 
less the  remains  of  the  warriors  who  fell  in  the  battles  of 
the  valley,  as  bullets  corroded  and  white,  and  sometimes 
broken  arrow-heads,  were  found  wedged  in  the  bones,  in 
dicating  the  precise  manner  of  their  death. 

Others,  crumbling  the  moment  they  were  uncovered,  or 
only  furnishing  a  dark  and  peculiar  deposit,  bore  evi- 
dence of  greater  age  in  their  burial.  Bowls  and  pots  of 
the  capacity  of  a  gallon  or  more,  ingeniously  cut  from 
soap-stone,  and  ornamented  with  rich  designs  of  beauty 
to  the  Indian's  eye,  were  often  found  preserved  with  the 

1  Miner's  History.  *  Ibid. 


5-t  IIISTOUY     OF    THE 

remains.  As  none  of  this  soap-stone  is  found  nearer  this 
place  than  Maryland  or  New  Hampshire,  it  would  seem 
to  indicate  the  migratory  as  well  as  the  commercial  char- 
acter of  the  tribe  once  possessing  them.  Hard,  highly 
polished,  and  handsomely  dressed  stones,  five  or  six  inches 
in  length,  fitted  for  the  hand,  and  used,  probably,  for  skin- 
ning deer  and  other  animals,  hatchets,  beads,  and  the  silent 
calumet,  here  and  there  intermingled  with  the  remains. 

On  the  brink  of  the  western  range  of  the  Moosic,  ill 
Leggetf  s  Gap,  between  Providence  and  Abington,  an  In- 
dian grave  was  found  in  a  very  singular  manner  a  number 
of}'earsago.  A  quick-footed  deer,  fleeing  from  his  pur- 
suer, leaped  upon  the  end  of  a  gun-barrel  projecting  from 
the  ground,  and  brought  it  to  the  hunter's  view.  A  little 
excavation  exposed  a  large  quantity  of  silica  or  flint  stones 
worked  into  arrow  and  spear  heads,  a  stone  tomahawk,  a 
French  gun-barrel,  an  iron  hoe,  and  some  human  bones, 
much  decayed.  The  skeleton  lay  on  its  right  side,  with  the 
knees  drawn  up,  the  head  reclining  toward  the  east,  while 
immediately  over  reposed  the  implements  and  weapons  of 
the  deceased.  The  hoe  and  the  gun,  both  much  corroded, 
wen?  probably  obtained  from  the  French,  while  their 
burial  with  the  warrior  upon  this  rugged  spur  of  the 
mountain  would  indicate  the  time  of  their  deposit  as  a 
period  of  peace.  In  his  lap  were  found  the  arrows,  made 
from  one  to  two  inches  in  length.  Nearly  a  hundred 
small  snail-shells,  all  fitted  for  stringing,  and  which  had 
probably  been  used  for  belts  or  beads,  lay  immediately 
under  the  arrows.  There  was  also  a  pipe,  made  from  dark 
stone,  one  end  of  it  being  shaped  for  a  stopple,  and  could 
be  used  for  a  whistle  to  gather  the  tribe  from  afar  down 
the  ravine,  and  the  other  for  a  scoop  or  spoon.  This  sin- 
gular contrivance,  if  not  used  for  a  whistle,  probably 
achieved  great  usefulness  in  porridge  or  broth.  A  small 
quantity  of  mineral,  resembling  black-lead,  intended, 
doubtless,  for  medicine,  had  also  been  deposited  in  this 
isolated  grave,  beside  the  departed  hunter. 


LACK  AW  ANN  A    VALLEY.  55 

A  portion  of  these,  and  a  vast  quantity  of  other  inter- 
esting relics  of  the  red-man,  in  a  fine  state  of  preservation, 
are  now  in  the  possession  of  the  writer,  open  and  free  to 
all  who  choose  to  visit  them. 

Upon  the  western  bank  of  the  Lackawanna,  in  the 
upper  portion  of  Capoose  Meadow,  in  Providence,  oppo- 
site the  residence  of  the  late  Dr.  Silas  B.  Robinson,  slopes 
off  a  gentle  mound,  where,  in  1795,  a  number  of  Indian 
graves  were  discovered  and  exhumed  by  a  party  of  set- 
tlers in  search  of  antiquarian  spoils.  As  one  of  the 
mounds  seemed  to  have  been  'prepared  with  especial 
attention,  and  contained,  with  the  bones  of  the  warrior,  a 
great  quantity  of  the  implements  of  the  deceased,  it  was 
supposed,  erroneously  no  doubt,  to  have  been  the  grave 
of  the  chieftain  Capoose.  These  graves,  few  in  number, 
perhaps  pointed  to  the  last  of  the  group  of  Monsey  war- 
riors who  had  offered  incense  and  sacrifice  to  the  Great 
Spirit  at  Capoose.  The  strings  of  wampum  and  their  war 
instruments — for  which  this  mound  was  disturbed — bore 
them  company  as  they  lay  piled  over  with  the  gray  sand 
of  the  meadow,  and  were  protected  and  comforted  on 
their  long  journey  by  these  rude,  yet  cherished,  amulets. 
These  graves,  endowed  with  no  utterance  but  that  of 
uncertain  tradition,  have  been  so  obliterated  by  the 
operations  of  agriculture  that  little  or  no  trace  of  them 
now  appears  to  the  unpracticed  eye. 

Arrows,  stone  vessels,  tomahawks  and  knives,  stone 
mortars  and  their  accompanying  pestles  for  pounding  corn 
into  nas-ump,  or  samp,  and  other  curious  relics  of  Indian 
times,  are  occasionally  found  in  the  valley,  and  although 
time  has  robbed  them  of  much  of  their  original  beauty 
and  usefulness,  they  have  not  lost,  nor  never  can  lose, 
their  savage  interest. 

To  the  antiquarian,  however,  nothing  could  provoke 
more  inquiry  and  interest  than  the  remains  of  an  ancient 
Indian  mound  or  encampment,  found  in  Covington,  Lu- 
zerne  County,  near  the  line  of  the  Delaware,  Lackawanna, 


56  HISTORY    OF    THK 

and  Western  Railway,  which  to  all  appearances  wore  as 
old  as  those  existing  in  "Wyoming  Valley.  These  remains 
were  discovered  in  1833  by  Mr.  Welch,  then  a  draughts- 
man in  the  Land  Office  at  Washington,  while  he  was  hunt- 
ing along  Bell-meadow  Brook,  a  small  tributary  of  the 
Lehigh,  on  the  Pocono.  The  accidental  discovery  of  a 
piece  of  pottery  among  the  loose  pebbles  on  the  bank  of 
the  brook,  so  different  in  its  character  to  anything  he  had 
ever  seen  before,  naturally  awakened  his  curiosity,  and  led 
to  the  subsequent  excavation  of  a  vast  quantity  of  sharp 
and  flinty  arrow  and  spear  heads,  a  large  stone  hatchet, 
bowls  of  immense  capacity,  fashioned  and  baked  from 
sand  and  clay.  These  bowls  were  indented  upon  their 
sides  with  deep  linger  prints,  and  some  were  tastily  orna- 
mented with  characters  original  and  unique. 

The  late  Richard  Drinker,  Esq.,  of  Scran  ton,  a  gentle- 
man eminent  in  his  day  for  genial  philosophy  and  social 
abilities,  to  whom  the  writer  was  indebted  for  the  above 
facts,  was  present  at  the  time  of  their  discovery,  and  de- 
scribed the  pottery  thus  found  as  being  enormous  in  quan- 
tity. An  elegant  short  pipe,  belonging  probably  to  a 
squaw,  was  also  found  immediately  under  the  tomahawk, 
in  so  perfect  a  state  of  preservation  that  it  was  to  all 
appearances,  as  lit  for  the  consumption  of  their  favorite 
weed  as  when  first  fashioned  into  shape.  A  huge  pile  of 
elk  bones  and  teeth  were  also  found,  but  the  bones  crum- 
bled to  dust  the  moment  they  were  exposed  to  the  touch 
or  air.  Underneath  them  all,  lay  the  remains  of  a  great 
camp-lire,  which  was  probably  hurriedly  deserted,  and  as 
hurriedly  smothered  with  sand  and  stone  to  the  depth  of 
twelve  or  fourteen  inches.  Ashes,  coals,  and  half-burned 
brands,  one  of  which  still  bore  tin?  marks  of  a  hatchet  dis- 
tinctly upon  it,  were  spread  over  a  surface  of  at  least 
fifteen  feet. 

The  most  singular  article  exhumed,  was  a  number  of 
flat,  delicately  smoothed  stone,  somewhat  resembling  a 
carpenter's  whetstone  in  sliape  and  size,  each  one  bored 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  57 

with  two  or  three  small  circular  holes  near  the  extremity 
or  the  center.  Whether  these  had  been  drilled  and  used 
for  weaving  fish-nets  from  wood  or  hemp,  constructing 
belts  of  wampum,  or  for  other  mechanical  or  ornamental 
purposes,  is  a  matter  of  inquiry  or  conjecture. 

Trees  of  Norway  girth  have  grown  upon  the  edge  of 
this  brook  since  this  camp-fire  went  out  forever,  and 
almost  upon  these  remains,  one  immense  hemlock,  green 
in  its  foliage,  has  defied  the  storms  of  centuries  as  it  stands 
like  a  Roman  sentinel  of  old,  over  this  ancient  sepulcher 
of  the  forgotten  savage. 

The  absence  of  iron  and  copper  utensils  among  the 
debris,  furnished  abundant  proof  that  these  relics  had 
been  deposited  by  the  red-men  in  the  stone  period,  long 
before  their  knowledge  of  the  European  race,  but  why 
they  were  thus  left  isolated  from  their  war-paths,  or  the 
purpose  or  the  cause  of  their  smothered  fire,  the  learned 
antiquarian  can  only  conjecture. 

The  beaver,  caught  more  for  its  furs  than  its  casto- 
reum — now  a  considerable  medicinal  agent — once  held  their 
court  in  a  low  marsh  or  meadow  adjoining  this  camp,  from 
which  the  Indians  evidently  obtained  sand  for  their  pot- 
tery. 

In  fact  the  Lackawanna,  and  the  wilder  waters  of  the 
Le-fir  (Lehigh),  were  inhabited  by  the  beaver  at  the  time 
of  the  first  settlement  of  the  valley  by  the  whites.  Across 
these  streams,  especially  the  upper  Lehigh,  they  built 
their  u  beaver  dams"  upon  the  most  scientific  principles 
of  the  engineering  art,  living  upon  ash,  birch,  poplars 
and  the  softer  wood,  of  which  they  were  particularly 
fond.1  In  the  deepest  part  of  the  pond  they  built  their 
houses,  resembling  somewhat  the  wigwam  of  the  Indian, 
with  a  floor  of  saplings,  sloping  toward  the  water  like  an 
inclined  plane.  Here,  secure  in  their  moated  castle,  they 


1  There  are  many  places  along  all  the  streams  of  the  country,  originally  stripped 
of  all  their  growth  by  the  industrious  and  engineering  beaver. 


58  HISTORY    OF    THE 

slept  with  their  tails  under  water,  ascending  the  floor  with 
the  rise  of  the  stream.  Rafting,  when  the  rivers  were 
swollen,  destroyed  their  dams,  and  drove  the  beaver  to 
creeks  more  quiet  and  remote.  In  1826  there  came  from 
Canada  an  old  trapper  in  search  of  the  coveted  furs,  who 
caught  with  his  traps  all  of  these  industrious  animals  but 
a  single  one  lingering  along  the  Lehigh  and  the  Lacka- 
wanna ;  this  lonely  beaver  by  sharpened  instinct,  defied 
the  trapper's  cunning  for  a  year  or  two,  when,  wandering 
down  the  swifter  waters  of  the  Alanomink  in  search  of  his 
lost  companions,  he  was  killed  near  Stroudsburg. 

Is  it  not  a  little  curious  that  with  all  the  romantic  ancient 
history  of  the  Wyoming  and  Lacka wanna  valleys,  so  little 
attention  until  recently  has  been  given  toward  gathering 
and  preserving  the  various  Indian  implements  once  used 
in  peace  or  in  war?  The  writer  has  a  passion  for  the 
old—  not  the  old  hills  covered  with  forests,  through  whose 
hoary  locks  centuries  have  rustled  unnumbered  and 
unsung — but  the  lingering  relics  of  a  race,  the  bravest  the 
world  ever  knew,  which  convey  at  once  to  the  mind  the 
ideal,  the  strife,  the  passions,  the  achievements,  and  the 
glory  of  another  day  and  another  race.  These  links  and 
landmarks  of  remote  antiquity  ;  the  rarer  implements  of 
copper  sometimes  found  in  their  ancient  graves  ;  the  rude 
inscriptions  which  mark  the  first  impulses  of  the  wild-men 
toward  letters  or  written  legend  ;  the  stone  battle-ax  or 
tomahawk  once  flung  or  brandished  by  the  brave  exulting 
over  his  fallen  foe  ;  the  knife  whose  scalping  edge  gleamed 
alike  over  the  victim  in  the  cradle  or  the  field  ;  the  keen 
edged  arrow  twanged  upon  its  fatal  mission,  or  the  calu- 
met cherished  afar  for  its  silent  and  subduing  power, 
once  smoked  around  the  forest  encampment — all  are  so 
associated  with  by -gone  times,  that  as  the  plow  now  and 
then  iip-turns  some  little  memento  of  the  warrior's  life,  it 
astonishes  the  antiquarian  to  learn,  that,  aside  from  the 
really  valuable  and  magnificent  collection  of  Hon.  Steuben 
Jenkins  of  Wyoming,  and  those  possessed  by  the  writer, 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  59 

so  few  of  these  memorials  have  been  treasured  up  in  tlie 
valley  to-day.  Such  a  group  of  Indian  relics,  embracing 
every  variety  able  to  illustrate  the  life,  religion,  and 
character  of  the  former  occupants  of  the  country,  long  be- 
fore the  aggressions  and  repeated  wrongs  of  the  white  man 
had  become  a  great  national  reproach,  and  had  turned 
the  simple  savage  into  a  western  heathen,  compelled  to 
fight  for  a  standing-place,  or  starve  with  plenty  around 
him  and  yet  beyond  his  reach,  could  not  fail  to  be  invalu- 
able as  years  rendered  their  possession  difficult  or  quite 
impossible. 1 

Whatever  might  have  been  the  former  character  of 
Indian  warfare  in  the  earliest  history  of  Wyoming,  or 
however  much  the  infant  settlements  throughout  the 
country  may  have  suffered  from  the  fagot  and  the  knife- 
when  the  cries  of  helpless  womanhood  and  the  innocence 
of  childhood  plead  alike  in  vain — it  is  established  by 
indubitable  evidence  of  government  officials, 2  and  else- 
where, that  in  the  more  recent  wars  the  Indians  have  not 
been  the  aggressors.  We  know,  by  living  testimony,  that 
they  have  been  crowded,  inch  by  inch,  southward  and 
westward  by  the  constant  incursions  and  shameful  en- 
croachments of  the  Caucasian  race,  until,  from  being  a 
great,  proud,  and  powerful  nation,  respected  for  their 
virtues  and  feared  for  their  strength,  extending  immense 
influence  over  the  Western  world,  they  have  been  re- 
duced to  a  mere  handful  of  lurking  warriors,  rendered 
desperate  by  maltreatment  and  impoverished  by  misfor- 
tune. 

INDIAN   APPLE-TEEE. 

In  a  description  of  New  Nether] and  (New  York),  pub- 
lished at  Amsterdam,  in  1671,  the  appearance  of  the  New 
Netherlanders  (Indians  of  the  Island  of  New  York),  are 
thus  described,  and  will  answer  every  description  of  the 

1  Sac  Appendix.  a  See  Mr.  Bogy's  Report  on  Indian  Affairs. 


GO  HISTORY    OF    TKE 

Lkckawanna  Indians:  —  "This  people  is  divided  into 
divers  nations,  all  well-shaped  and  strong,  having  pitch- 
black  and  lank  hair,  as  coarse  as  a  horse's  tail,  broad 
shoulders,  small  waist,  brown  eyes,  and  snow-white  teeth  ; 
they  are  of  a  sallow  color,  abstemious  in  food  and  drink. 
Water  satisfies  their  thirst ;  high  and  low  make  use  of 
Indian  corn  and  beans,  flesh  meat  and  fish,  prepared  all 
alike.  The  crushed  corn  is  daily  boiled  to  a  pap,  called 
by  them  sappacn.  They  observe  no  set  time  for  meals. 
Whenever  hunger  demands,  the  time  for  eating  arrives. 
Beaver's  tails  are  considered  the  most  savory  delicacy. 
Whilst  hunting,  they  live  some  days  on  roasted  corn, 
carried  about  the  person  in  a  little  bag.  A  little  corn  in 
water  swells  to  a  large  mass.  Henry  Hudson  relates  that 
he  entered  the  river  Montaines  in  the  latitude  of  forty 
degrees,  and  there  went  ashore.  The  Indians  made 
strange  gambols  with  dancing  and  singing ;  carried  ar- 
rows, the  points  of  which  consisted  of  sharp  stones, 
fastened  to  the  wood  with  pitch  ;  they  slept  under  the 
blue  sky,  on  little  mats  of  platted  leaves  of  trees ;  suck 
strong  tobacco  ;  are  friendly,  but  very  thievish.  Hudson 
sailed  up  thirty  miles  higher,  went  into  a  canoe  with  an 
old  Indian,  a  chief  over  forty  men  and  seventeen  women, 
who  conducted  him  ashore.  They  all  abode  in  one  house 
well  built  of  the  bark  of  oak-trees/'1 

The  domestic  habits  of  the  Mousey  tribe,  when  not 
engaged  in  warfare,  were  extremely  simple  and  lazy. 
Patches  of  open  land  or  ''Indian  clearings"  early  were 
found  in  the  valley,  where  onions,  cantaloupes,  beans,  and 
corn,  and  their  favorite  weed,  tobacco,  were  half  cultiva- 
ted by  the  obedient  squaw. 

On  the  low  strip  of  land  lying  upon  either  side  of  the 
street  railroad,  midway  betAveen  Scranton  and  Provi- 
dence, and  near  the  cottage  built  some  years  since  by 
Dr.  Throop,  now  known  as  the  "Atlantic  Garden,"  there 

1  Documentary  History  of  Now  York,  vol.  iv.,  p.  124. 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  61 

was  found  by  the  first  white  explorers  into  the  valley,  a 
permanent  camp-place  which  had,  to  all  appearances, 
long  been  used  for  tillage  and  a  dwelling-place.  Within 
this  ancient  clearing  the  passer  can  hardly  fail  to  observe 
an  apple-tree  standing  on  the  east  side  of  the  road,  crag- 
ged  and  venerable,  even  if  some  of  its  limbs  betoken  the 
approach  of  age  or  the  presence  of  neglect.  Its  precise 
location  can  be  seen  upon  the  Indian  map  of  Capoose 
Meadow.  This  is  the  Indian  apple-tree,  of  great  age, 
thirteen  and  a  half  feet  in  circumference,  and  possibly 
was  planted  by  the  friendly  hand  of  Capoose,  more  than 
a  century  ago.  By  arms  selfish  and  rude,  this  old  tree, 
which  deserves  a  protecting  fence  to  honor  its  memory, 
was  bereft  of  its  mates  many  years  ago,  because  their 
wide-spread  branches  threw  too  much  shade  upon  the 
inclosing  meadow!  A  few  sprigs  of  grass  probably  re- 
paid for  the  destroying  act.  This  single  tree  now  stands 
alone  as  a  relic  of  primitive  husbandry  at  Capoose, 
affording  in  the  summer  months,  by  its  green  foliage,  as 
ample  shade  to  the  lolling  ox  or  idle  boy  as  it  once  gave 
to  the  squaw  or  her  lord  when  he  skimmed  along  the 
La-ha-Jia-na  in  his  own  canoe.  In  one  of  the  apple-trees 
thus  cut  down,  in  1804,  were  counted  one  hundred  and 
fifty  concentric  circles  or  yearly  growths,  thus  dating  the 
tree  back  to  a  time  long  before  the  reports  of  the  trapper 
or  the  story  of  the  Indians  came  out  of  the  valley  to  the 
whites.  Seventy  years  ago  a  large  wild-plum  orchard, 
standing  in  a  swale  adjoining  this  clearing,  hung  with 
millions  of  the  juicy  fruit,  while  the  grape,  with  almost- 
tropical  luxuriance,  purpled  the  intermingling  tree-tops. 
The  vines,  none  of  which  now  remain,  as  well  as  the 
apple-trees,  were  no  doubt  the  result  of  Indian  culture. 

BEACON-FIKES   AND   INDIAN   LEGEND. 

Every  gorge  or  up-shooting  point  in  the  range  diversi- 
fying the  valley  is  enriched  with  its  tradition  and  story. 
In  the  Indian  wars,  the  Moosic  or  Cobb  Mountain,  afford- 


02  HISTORY    OF    THE 

ing  as  it  did  an  admirable  view  of  the  entire  valley,  and 
a  wide  scope  of  country  toward  the  Wallenpaupack  and 
Delaware,  was  long  used  by  the  forest  men  for  the 
location  of  their  beacon  fires.  Campbell's  Ledge,  from 
its  sharp  altitude,  so  located  as  to  overlook  both  valleys 
as  far  as  inhabited  by  them,  was  held  in  corresponding 
importance  from  this  fact. 

So  well  were  these  evening  lights  understood  by  them, 
that  the  warriors  could  be  collected  to  any  given  point 
•with  rare  speed  and  certainty.  Should  any  thing  on  their 
part  demand  hasty  action,  fire  after  fire  would  spring  up 
with  wonderful  rapidity  on  every  height  and  plateau,  at 
intervals  of  a  few  miles,  upon  the  mountain-tops  ;  and  as 
they  successively  gleamed  their  lurid  light  to  the  sky, 
they  conveyed  a  meaning  to  the  savage  mind  well  known 
as  if  their  native  guttural  had  told  it  in  the  valley.  Once 
lighted,  these  beacon-fires,  around  which  the  warriors 
danced  and  sang  in  their  wild  joy,  or  prepared  meals 
after  the  march  of  the  day,  could  be  seen  for  a  great  dis- 
tance. No  language  was  more  silent  or  expressive  to  the 
inhabitant  of  the  forest  ;  none  awoke  greater  danger  to 
the  pioneer  than  their  appearance. 

No  matter  how  sudden  or  swift  the  pursuit,  when  the 
fireplace  was  reached  the  red  chieftains  had  vanished, 
leaving  nothing  behind  them  but  expiring  brands.  Along 
many  of  the  higher  peaks  of  the  mountain,  generally 
upon  the  eastern  border  of  the  Lackawanna,  can  yet  be 
seen  faint  traces  of  these  ancient  beacons.  Huge,  gray 
stones,  partially  cracked  by  the  heat  of  the  fire  whose 
location  it  marked,  have  been  visited  by  the  writer,  upon 
an  eminence  distinguished  at  Spring  Brook,  near  the  resi- 
dence of  our  hospitable  and  humorous  friend,  Edward 
Dolph.  This  peak  is  one  of  the  prominent  ones,  where 
this  primitive  manner  of  telegraphing  carried  dismay  or 
hope  to  many  a  watching  woodsman  down  in  the  valley. 
These  places  faced  the  valley,  and  this  one,  unlike  the 
others  visited,  appears  not  to  have  been  disturbed  in  its 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  63 

solitude  since  the  brand  of  the  sachem  expired  a  century 
ago. 

Few  portions  of  country  afford  a  broader  scope  for 
legendary  research  than  that  along  the  Susquehanna  and 
Lackawanna.  Here,  immured  in  the  forest,  marked  only 
by  paths  and  streams,  and  surrounded  by  every  element 
of  simplicity  and  beauty,  the  river  clans  smoked  the 
peace-pipe  or  danced  the  war-dance,  with  whoops  and 
halloos,  and  went  forth  with  paint  and  sharpened  weapon 
to  gather  the  scalps  of  the  spoilers  of  their  threshold. 

SILVER  MINE  ON  THE   LACKAWAISHSTA. 

Of  the  value  of  precious  metals  the  Indians  knew  little 
or  nothing  until  taught  it  by  the  whites,  and  then,  learn- 
ing to  their  dismay  how  fatal  to  their  narrowing  hunting- 
grounds  were  the  aggressions  of  the  expanding  settle- 
ments, they  practiced  every  possible  caution  in  concealing 
all  knowledge  of  mines  and  minerals  in  every  portion  of 
the  wilderness.  The  Indian  who,  in  thoughtless  or 
drunken  mood,  betrayed  the  secret  of  their  location,  paid 
the  penalty  of  his  guilt  by  sudden  death  or  lingering  tor- 
ture. Yet  about  one  hundred  years  ago  the  whites 
learned  by  treachery,  and  lost  by  misfortune,  knowledge 
of  a  silver  mine  located  about  two  miles  up  the  Lacka- 
wanna from  its  mouth. 

In  1766  the  Six  Nations  complained  to  the  Proprietary 
Government  at  Philadelphia  of  white  persons  who  had 
dug  into  a  silver  mine,  twelve  miles  above  the  Delaware 
town  of  Wy-wa-mick,  and  carried  away  in  canoes  three 
loads  of  ore.  An  Indian  trader  named  Anderson,  who 
had  brought  a  few  goods  up  the  river,  was  suspected  of 
being  the  transgressor. 

John  Teal,  a  German,  who  died  some  years  ago  at  an 
advanced  age,  threw  some  additional  light  upon  the  loca- 
tion of  this  hidden  silver  mine.  He  had  lived  long 
enough  with  the  wild  tribes  to  understand  their  dialect, 


64  HISTORY    OF    THE 

and  enjoy  tho  confidence  of  an  aged  chief  of  the  Oneidas, 
residing  in  western  New  York,  who  had  assisted  to  efface 
every  outward  and  visible  evidence  of  the  existence  of 
this  mine.  When  the  chieftain  saw  that  his  days  were 
few,  he  called  his  friend  Teal  to  his  wigwam,  to  intrust 
him  with  secrets  of  no  longer  consequence  to  the  Indian. 
He  informed  him  that  there  were  three  salt  springs,  one 
silrer,  one  gold,  and  one  lead  mine  in  the  vicinity  of 
Wyoming,  and  all  used  by  them  while  in  possession  of 
the  country.  The  silver  mine,  long  known  to  the  scat- 
tered tribes,  was  on  the  northeast  side  of  the  Lacka- 
wanna,  above  a  high  ledge  or  mountain,  half  an  hour's 
walk  from  the  River  Susquehanna,  twelve  miles  above 
Wyoming.  After  the  first  Wyoming  massacre,  in  1763. 
the  dwellers  in  wigwams,  hoping  to  retain  occupancy  for- 
ever of  the  rich  plains,  coveted  by  triple  parties,  used 
this  mine  to  their  advantage ;  but  when  the  intruders 
again  made  their  appearance  in  such  formidable  numbers 
as  to  annihilate  the  long-cherished  hope,  the  mine  was  so 
artfully  concealed  from  the  whites  that  none  yet  have 
found  the  spot  yielding  the  precious  metal. 

Traditions,  treasured  up  by  old  settlers  half  a  century 
ago,  tell  of  an  excavation  in  the  bank  of  the  Lackawanna, 
between  Old  Forge  and  the  Barnum  farm,  similar  to  that 
described  in  the  Pennsylvania  Archives  of  17C6. 

That  a  silver  mine  was  known  and  worked  by  the  abo- 
rigines in  this  vicinity,  is  unquestionably  proved  by  the 
fact  that  official  complaint  was  made  by  them  of  the 
depredations  of  Anderson,  but  its  precise  location  remains 
at  present  in  great  doubt. 

GOLD  MINI:. 

The  chief  described  the  gold  mine  as  being  under  a 
ledge  of  rocks,  a  few  miles  above  Wyoming  Valley,  at  a 
point  where  a  rock  of  the  height  of  an  Indian  covered  a 
spring. 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY. 


65 


Five  miles  westward  from  Scranton,  in  a  direct  line,  on 
the  western  side  of  the  mountain  forming  the  boundary 
between  the  townships  of  Providence  and  Newton,  rises 
a  long  ledge  of  rock  known  as  Bald  Mount,  which,  from 
its  altitude,  offers,  when  the  day  is  clear,  so  wide  a  view 
of  field,  forest,  and  lake,  that,  in  spite  of  the  steep,  zig- 
zag way  of  approaching  it,  has  become,  during  the  sum- 
mer hours,  a  popular  resort  for  parties  loving  the  romance 


TOP   OF   BALD   MOUNT. 


of  mountain  life.  At  its  very  base  lies  the  village  of 
Milwaukie,  watered  by  a  stream  turned  to  good  mill 
account  before  it  enters  the  Susquehanna,  five  miles 
below.  Eight  or  ten  villages  can  be  seen  from  the  mount, 
which,  shorn  of  its  larger  trees  by  the  force  of  the  wind 
sometimes  sweeping  over  it  with  great  fury,  is  left  com- 
paratively bald,  and  thus  given  it  a  name.  One  large 
rock,  prominent  in  position,  is  perforated  with  numerous 
holes  of  the  capacity  of  from  a  quart  to  a  gallon,  as  shown 
by  the  preceding  illustration  of  Bald  Mount.  These  were 
probably  used  by  the  Indian  women  for  pounding  their 


66  HISTORY    OF    THE 

corn  into  samp.     The  large  number  of  stone  pestles  found 
near  it  many  years  ago  favor  this  theory. 

Under  this  precipice  can  be  seen  one  large  conglomerate 
rock,  evidently  removed  some  distance  down  the  moun- 
tain by  the  natives  to  conceal  the  real  origin  of  the  spring. 
In  the  removal  of  this  rock  the  trees,  bent  at  the  time, 
grew  up  with  a  very  perceptible  inclination  toward  it. 
From  beneath  its  honest  features  emerges  a  spring,  sur- 
passed in  the  purity  of  its  waters  by  no  other  in  the 
world,  where  many  metallurgists  and  others  have  sup- 
posed the  gold  mine  was  located.  Explorations  hitherto 
made  upon  every  side  of  Bald  Mount  have  failed  to 
satisfy  expectations  naturally  awakened  by  these  tra- 
ditions. 

In  1778,  a  young  man  who  had  been  captured  by  the 
savages  in  Wyoming  Valle}r,  was  carried  to  the  top  of  a 
mountain  where  the  Wilkes  Barre  settlement  could  be 
seen  in  the  distance.  Here  they  built  their  camp-fire.  A 
transaction  took  place  at  this  time  which,  from  its  novel 
character,  excited  the  surprise  and  ever  afterward  im- 
pressed the  mind  of  the  young,  unharmed  captive.  A 
venerable  chief,  to  whom  the  young  man  owed  his  safety, 
and  subsequently  his  release,  removed  a  large  flat  stone 
covering  the  spring.  The  waters  of  this  were  so  conveyed 
by  a  subterranean  conduit,  constructed  for  the  purpose,  as 
to  deceive  the  men  strolling  through  the  wilderness  in 
regard  to  the  real  source  of  the  spring.  At  its  mouth  a 
roll  of  bark,  forming  a  spout,  was  placed  in  such  a  man- 
ner as  to  direct  the  current  into  a  handkerchief  held  under 
it  by  two  of  the  Indians.  For  some  moments  the  chief, 
reverently  attended  by  the  warriors,  arrayed  with  bow 
and  arrow,  and  forming  a  circle  around  him,  stirred  up 
the  spring  with  a  conscious  knowledge  of  its  gainful 
results.  After  an  hour  had  elapsed,  every  stone  pre- 
viously disturbed  was  restored  to  its  former  condition  ; 
oarth  and  leaves  were  left  as  if  never  touched,  and  no  one, 
without  ocular  knowledge,  would  suspect  the  existence 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  C7 

of  a  water-course.  The  handkerchief,  covered  with 
yellow  sediment,  was  now  lifted  from  the  spout.  The 
glittering  product  thus  gathered  by  the  chief  was 
placed  in  a  stone  vessel  with  great  care.  After  the  fire 
was  extinguished,  and  certain  incantations  performed 
with  ceremonial  exactness,  the  Indians  left  the  spot  in 
charge  of  the  wild  rock  surrounding  it,  and  resumed 
their  march  toward  their  land  of  maize  among  the 
lakes. 

Six  days'  walk  led  the  party  to  Kingston,  New  York, 
where  the  treasures  of  the  mountain,  thus  artfully 
obtained,  were  exchanged  with  the  whites,  for  such 
articles  as  want  or  caprice  suggested  to  the  occupants  of 
the  forest. 

In  after  years  the  returned  hero  often  related  the  inci- 
dent to  his  family  and  friends,  some  of  whom  thoroughly 
traversed  every  portion  of  Bald  Mount  and  Campbell's 
Ledge  without  discovering  the  secret  channel  or  the 
golden  spring. 

SALT  SPRINGS. 

The  three  salt  springs  were  respectively  located,  one 
at  Martin's  Creek,  one  in  the  mountain  gap  between 
Providence  and  Abington,  the  other  on  the  Nay-aug, 
about  five  miles  from  the  junction  of  this  stream  with  the 
Lackawanna  at  Capoose.  The  last-named  one,  manip- 
ulated by  the  Indians  to  come  out  of  the  bed  of  the 
brook,  was  considered  by  the  wild  tribes  as  the  richest, 
as  it  yielded  the  largest  quantity  of  salt  with  the  least 
labor.  When  a  knowledge  of  this  spring  first  came  to 
the  white  man,  deer  came  hither  in  herds.  Sometimes 
there  were  hundreds  in  a  drove  around  these  salt  licks  ; 
and  it  was  rare  during  the  spring  or  summer  months  not 
to  find  the  buck  or  fawn  cropping  the  wild  grass  growing 
luxuriantly  around  these  briny  places.  In  the  upper 
part  of  Leggett's  Gap,  in  the  mountain  west  of  Providence, 
there  was  a  salt  spring  strongly  impregnated  with  saline 


68  HISTORY    OF    THE 

properties.  When  the  white  adventurer  first  sought  the 
valley  for  his  home,  and  found  no  luxury  but  steak 
from  the  bear  or  haunch  from  the  deer,  and  heard  no 
voice  but  that  issuing  from  the  throat  of  the  rifle, 
the  waters  of  this  spring  were  often  sought  to  obtain 
the  scarce  and  necessary  salt.  The  warriors'  path 
from  Oquago  salt  spring  to  Capoose  passed  by  its 
waters.  Much  of  the  salt  for  the  earliest  settlers  of 
the  Lackawanna  and  Wyoming  valleys  was  granulated 
here. 

Mr.  Blackman,  who  was  taken  captive  from  Wyoming, 
relates  of  the  Indians,  that  when  salt  became  scarce,  they 
went  up  the  Lackawanna  and  returned  the  next  day, 
loaded  with  the  desired  article,  which  was  sometimes 
"warm.  From  a  knowledge  of  this  spring,  advantage  was 
early  taken  hy  the  hunter  and  trapper,  for  in  such  num- 
bers deer  frequented  this  fountain  to  lap  its  waters,  that 
they  easily  and  often  fell  a  trophy  to  the  woodsman's 
gun. 

A  hunter  of  seventy  winters  tells  the  writer  that,  in 
his  younger  days,  deer  were  so  tame  in  the  vicinity  of 
this  spring,  that  he  has  killed  and  dressed  during  his 
lifetime  one  hundred  and  forty-seven  deer  at  this  place 
alone  ! 

That  the  natives  frequented  this  place  for  the  purpose 
of  killing  deer  and  curing  venison,  is  satisfactorily  proven 
by  the  quantity  of  warlike  and  domestic  Indian  relics 
found  immediately  around  it  at  an  early  day. 

LEAD    MINE. 

Tuscarora  Creek,  a  wild,  clear,  rapid  stream,  retaining 
its  original  Indian  name,  and  lying  between  Meshoppen 
and  Wyalusing,  puts  into  the  east  side  of  the  Susque- 
hanna,  about  thirty  miles  above  the  Lackawanna.  Half 
a  mile  from  its  month,  under  a  cliff  leaning  gloomily  over 
a  sharp  bend  of  the  stream,  where  the  rocks  go  down 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  69 

into  the  waters  here  deeper  than  at  any  other  point,  a 
lead  mine  was  worked  by  the  Indians  for  making  bullets, 
after  they  had  been  taught  the  use  of  the  rifle  by  the 
English  and  the  French.  The  Oneida  chief  informed 
Mr.  Teal,  that  not  only  were  the  Wyoming  Indians  sup- 
plied with  lead  from  this  Tuscarora  mine,  but  the  French, 
while  in  harmony  with  the  Iroquois,  drew  largely 
upon  it. 

The  Indian,  in  his  wild  dream  of  future  hope,  imposed 
silence  so  effectually  upon  the  rock  along  the  Tuscarora, 
that  although  several  companies  have  exhausted  large 
sums  of  money  in  attempting  to  discover  the  lost  mine, 
no  knowledge  of  its  location  is  had  other  than  that  com- 
ing from  Indian  tradition. 

Tuscarora  Creek  has  a  scrap  of  history  of  its  own. 
The  great  war-path  from  Tioga  down  to  Wyoming, 
crossed  the  mouth  of  this  stream.  It  was  in  the  certified 
township  of  Braintrim  and  county  of  Westmoreland.  In 
1779,  Gen.  Sullivan,  with  his  army,  crossed  the  Tuscarora 
at  this  point.  When  his  rear-guard  had  reached  the 
south  bank,  where  a  large  mountain,  covered  with  oak, 
with  little  or  no  underbrush  intervening  to  obstruct  the 
view  for  a  great  distance,  comes  down  to  the  very  stream, 
a  body  of  savages  were  seen  stealing  down  its  side  for 
the  purpose  of  securing  a  few  prisoners.  Familiar  with 
the  mode  of  Indian  warfare,  the  guards  leaped  behind  the 
trees,  affording  them  partial  shelter.  The  Indians,  more 
skilled  in  the  art  and  advantage  of  woodside  encounter, 
as  quickly  betook  themselves  to  the  oak,  which  concealed 
even  their  presence,  when  the  skirmish  began. 

Soldiers  fell,  wounded  or  dead,  without  knowing  from 
what  particular  quarter  bullets  issued.  At  length  Mr.  Elea- 
zer  Carey,  who  saw  his  fellow- soldiers  fall  one  after  another, 
simultaneously  with  the  crack  of  the  rifle  near  by  where 
he  was  standing,  espied  the  dusky  form  of  a  warrior  cau- 
tiously peering  out  from  behind  a  tree  not  fifty  yards  from 
where  he  was  standing,  with  his  well-aimed  gun  in  his 


70  HISTORY    OF    THE 

hand,  bring  down  a  soldier  at  each  discharge  of  his  weapon. 
After  the  Indian  had  reloaded,  Carey,  who  had  resolved 
to  kill  him  if  possible  when  lie  should  attempt  to  shoot 
again,  watched  with  intense  solicitude  the  warrior's 
rifle  as  it  was  again  brought  beside  the  tree.  No  sooner 
had  the  slight  projecting  cheek  and  eye  of  the  Indian 
come  out  so  as  to  be  discerned  by  Carey,  when  the  aveng- 
ing bullet  was  sent  forthwith  into  his  brain.  lie  gave 
one  high  leap,  uttered  one  deep  yell,  and  fell  to  rise  no 
more.  The  Indians  ran,  caught  up  his  body,  and  fled 
into  the  forest. 

So  much  for  mines  and  springs,  which  some  day  may 
possibly  have  more  interest  than  that  given  them  by 
rumors  and  vague  recollections  of  tradition. 

GENERAL   HISTORY. 

The  earliest  history  of  the  Lackawanna  Valley  is  so  in- 
terwoven with  that  of  AVyoming,  thatj  to  present  a  faith- 
ful picture  of  one,  material  must  be  largely  drawn  upon 
the  other.  In  fact,  while  Wyoming  in  its  limited  signifi- 
cation now  gives  a  name  to  a  valley  unsurpassed  for  the 
beauty  of  its  scenery  or  the  romance  of  its  history,  it  was 
formerly  used  in  a  more  enlarged  sense  to  designate  all 
the  country  purchased  by  the  New  England  men  of  the 
Indians  in  1754,  lying  in  what  is  now  known  as  Luzerne, 
AVyoming,  Susquehanna,  and  Wayne  counties.  Thus 
the  inhabitants  of  Providence,  Salem,  and  Huntington, 
all  comparatively  remote  from  Wyoming  Valley,  were 
designated  as  "  Wyoming  Settlers,"1  and  came  under  the 
disputed  jurisdiction  of  Connecticut. 

In  1752,  the  cabin  of  no  white  man  had  broken  the 
Wyoming  forest.  After  a  casual  reconnoissance  along  its 
eastern  border  by  the  hunter,  made  with  indefinite  knowl- 
edge of  the  character  of  the  plain  occupied  by  Teedyus- 
cung  and  Backsinosa,  a  Monsey  chief  at  Capoose,  and 

1  Miner. 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  71 

reported  with  glowing  exaggeration  to  adventurous  men 
living  in  Hartford  desiring  to  develop  the  western  por- 
tion of  their  possessions,  "a  number  of  persons,  princi- 
pally inhabitants  of  Connecticut,  formed  themselves  into 
a  company  for  the  purpose  of  purchasing  the  Susque- 
hanna  lands  of  the  Indians,  and  forming  a  settlement  at 
Wyoming.  This  association  was  called  the  "  Susquehan- 
na  Company,  and  during  the  same  year,  1753,  they  sent 
out  commissioners  to  explore  the  contemplated  territory, 
and  to  establish  a  friendly  intercourse  with  such  Indian 
tribes  as  should  be  found  in  possession  of  it."1  These 
facts,  carried  to  Philadelphia  by  Indian  scouts  and  inter- 
preters, alarmed  the  Proprietary  Government  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, which  also  claimed  this  wild  tract  yet  unlocked  by 
any  Indian  treaty,  grant,  or  title  to  any  party.  Daniel 
Broadhead  and  William  Parsons,  two  justices  of  the 
peace  in  Lower  Smithfield  Township,  Northampton  Coun- 
ty, on  the  war-path  from  Connecticut  to  Wyoming,  were 
instructed  by  Pennsylvania  to  watch  all  persons  and  par- 
ties going  hither  either  to  explore  or  begin  a  settlement. 

In  fact  no  inland  point  within  the  province  was  watched 
with  greater  solicitude  or  devotion  through  many  years 
of  strange  vicissitude  than  was  Wyoming.  The  deep, 
broad  Susquehanna  coming  down  through  the  magnificent 
highlands  and  mountains  from  the  wood-rimmed  lakes  of 
New  York,  carrying  its  flood  sometimes  rudely  over  its 
banks  where  the  cabin-dwellers  roamed  in  no  doubtful 
security,  gave  to  a  valley  naturally  beautiful  all  the 
needed  charms  to  captivate  the  Indian  or  allure  the  eye 
of  the  white  man.  Alive  with  moose,  bear,  and  deer, 
fluttering  with  the  wild  turkey  or  the  more  gentle  quail, 
the  woods  expanded  into  forest  far  extending  in  every 
direction  of  the  compass,  while  water-fowl,  and  fish  of 
every  hue  and  variety — especially  the  shad— animated 
the  river  and  all  its  winding  tributaries. 

1  Chapman,  p.  51. 


72  HISTORY    OF    THE 

Its  possession  was  a  prize  as  earnestly  sought  after  by 
one  party  as  it  was  sternly  resisted  by  the  other.  Al- 
though no  actual  settlement  had  been  instituted  here  by 
the  New  England  people,  yet  it  did  not  prevent  the  pro- 
vincial authorities  of  Pennsylvania  from  exhibiting  extra- 
ordinary vigilance  and  exertion  to  prevent  even  a  pur- 
chase or  survey  of  a  valley  so  rich  in  agricultural  pros- 
pects. James  Hamilton,  "Governor  of  Pennsylvania 
under  the  Proprietaries,  having  been  informed  of  the  in- 
tentions of  the  Susquehanna  Company,  considered  it 
proper  that  immediate  measures  should  be  taken  to  defeat 
those  intentions,  and  to  purchase?  the  land  for  the  use  of 
the  Proprietaries  of  Pennsylvania,"1  as  the  Attorney- 
General  of  Pennsylvania,  to  whom  it  had  been  referred, 
had  decided  "  that  tins  tract  of  land  (Wyoming)  liad  not 
yet  been  purchased  of  the  Six  Nations  (Indians),  but  has 
hitherto  been  reserved,  and  is  now  used  by  them  for  their 
hunting-grounds."2  Sir  William  Johnson,  his  Majesty's 
Indian  agent  for  the  colony,  residing  at  Albany,  in  a  let- 
ter dated  March  20,  1754,  was  informed  of  the  contem- 
plated purchase,  and  requested  to  see  "that  nothing  may 
be  done  with  the  Indians  by  the  Connecticut  agents,  or 
any  other  in  their  behalf,  to  the  injury  of  the  Proprieta- 
ries of  this  Province." 

It  should  be  understood  by  the  general  reader,  that  all 
lands  claimed  by  the  English  in  America  were  sold  or 
granted  to  one  or  more  persons  with  an  understanding 
that  the  right,  or  rather  the  necessity  still  existed  of  re- 
purchasing the  same  territory  of  the  Indian  tribes  having 
ownership,  before  it  could  safely  be  occupied  by  the 
whites.  Thus  a  portion  of  the  land  granted  to  William 
Penn  by  King  Charles  II.,  March  11,  1681,  was  repur- 
chased by  him  of  the  native  tribes  in  a  manner  so  explicit 
and  satisfactory  to  them  that  ever  afterward  his  inter- 


1  Chapman,  p.  62.  'Opinion,  French  Francis,  March  18,  1754. 

*  Pennsylvania  Archives,  175L 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  73 

course  with  all  the  aborigines  was  marked  by  a  constant 
and  unvarying  friendship  unknown  in  modern  times.  To 
thus  purchase  Wyoming  lands,1  as  well  as  to  conciliate 
the  good-will  of  the  Indians,  already  excited  by  the 
bloody  drama  alternately  played  by  the  English  or  the 
French,  "orders  were  received  from  England  directing 
the  colonies  to  hold  a  general  treaty  with  the  Indians  at 
Albany  in  1754,  and  to  form,  if  possible,  such  an  alliance 
with  them  as  would  insure  their  friendship  and  the  safety 
of  his  Majesty's  possessions  in  America."2  By  runners 
and  messengers,  young,  swift,  and  ambitious,  the  wish 
of  his  Majesty's  Government  was  announced  to  the  vari- 
ous tribes  interested  and  remote,  and  all  assembled  at 
Fort  Stanwix  (now  Rome),  in  July.  1754. 

As  there  was  no  known  printed  copy  of  any  charter 
in  America,3  the  real  boundaries  of  the  rtyal  grant  was 
understood  by  few  or  none,  yet  the  authorities  of  Penn- 
sylvania, believing  at  this  time  that  Wyoming  was  within 
her  territorial  limits,  anticipated  and  resisted  the  efforts 
of  the  Connecticut  people,  or  the  Yankees  as  they  were 
termed,  by  every  art  of  diplomacy  and  every  mode  of 
warfare. 

John  and  Richard  Penn,  Isaac  Norris,  and  Benjamin 
Franklin,  were  appointed  by  Pennsylvania  as  Commis- 
sioners to  represent  the  interests  of  the  Province,  and 
true  to  their  instructions  from  Governor  Hamilton,  these 
eminent  gentlemen  held  private  conferences  with  the  Six 
Nations,  with  a  view  of  securing  Wyoming  lands,  in 
which  they  failed. 

July  11,  1754,  for  a  consideration  of  two  thousand 
pounds,  New  York  currency,  the  "chiefs,  sachems,  and 
heads  of  the  Five  Nations  of  Indians,  called  the  Iroquois, 
and  the  native  proprietors  of  a  large  tract  of  land  on, 
about,  and  adjacent  to  the  River  Susquehannah,  and 

1  When  Wyoming  is  spoken  of  in  relation  to  lands,  Adjouqua  or  Lackawanna 
Valley  is  of  course  included  within  its  meaning. 

9  Chapman,  p.  51.  '  TrumbulL 


74  HISTOKY    OF    THE 

being  within  the  limits  and  bounds  of  the  charter,  and 
grant  of  his  late  Majesty,  King  Charles  2nd,  to  the  Colo- 
nys  of  Connecticut!,"  sold  to  the  Susquehanna  Company 
Wyoming  lands  bounded  as  follows:  "Beginning  from 
the  one  and  fortieth  degree  of  north  latitude,  at  ten 
mihs  east  of  the  river  to  the  end  of  the  forty-second  or 
beginning  of  the  forty-third  degree  of  north  latitude, 
and  so  to  extend  west  two  degrees  of  longitude  one 
hundred  and  twenty  miles,  and  from  thence  south  to 
the  beginning  of  the  forty-second  degree,  and  from 
thence  east  to  the  aforementioned  boundrie,  which  is 
ten  miles  east  of  Suskahanna  River,  together  with  all 
and  every  the  mines,  minerals,  or  ore,  etc."  l  All  the  ter- 
ritory lying  between  this  line  ten  miles  east  of  the  Susque- 
Jtanna  and  the  Delaware  River,  was  purchased  by  the 
Delaware  Company,  so  that  the  lands  of  the  Lacka wanna 
Valley  were  embraced  respectively  in  the  purchases  of 
the  two  companies.  The  townships  of  Pittson,  Lacka- 
wanna,  Providence,  Newton,  and  a  portion  of  Abington, 
were  thus  embraced  within  the  Susquehanna  purchase ; 
while  Covington,  Springbrook,  Madison,  Jefferson,  Scott, 
and  Blakeley,  with  their  vast  array  of  thrifty  villages, 
and  the  neighboring  counties  of  Wayne  and  Pike,  Sus- 
quehanna, and  a  portion  of  Monroe,  were  alike  included 
by  the  Delaware  Indian  purchase. 

The  Proprietary  Government,  astonished  and  chagrined 
at  a  purchase  it  failed  by  the  ingenious  persuasions  of 
her  ablest  representatives  to  thwart,  began  to  suggest 
measures  of  practical  severity  to  rid  the  valley  of  the 
Yankee  intruders,  should  they  venture  upon  their  new 
purchase.  It  was  not  enough  that  the  wolf  crouched 
along  the  pathway  to  Wyoming,  or  that  the  savage, 
homeless  and  enraged,  crossed  the  westward  path  where 
the  French  and  Indian  wars  had  strewn  the  dead  to  appall 
the  adventurer. 

1  See  Pa.  Arch.,  1748-1756,  pp.  147-158,  for  original  copy  of  deed,  with  names 
of  purchasers. 


LACK  A.  WANNA    VALLEY.  75 

Early  in  February,  1754,  a  few  months  previous  to 
this  sale,  Wm.  Parsons,  of  Lower  Smithfield,  notified 
Governor  Hamilton  that  "some  of  his  near  neighbors  had 
accompanied  three  gentleman-like  men  to  Wyomink, 
who  produced  a  writing  under  a  large  seal,  empowering 
them  to  treat  and  agree  with  such  persons  as  were  dis- 
posed to  take  any  of  these  lands  of  them."1  He  also 
informed  the  Governor  "  that  it  may  be  the  means  of 
occasioning  very  great  disorder  and  disturbances  in  the 
back  parts  of  the  province."  Persons  living  in  Lower 
Smithfield  Township,  near  Stroudsburg,  holding  lands 
under  the  Proprietary  direction  and  authority,  looked 
so  favorably  on  the  proposed  settlement  of  Wyoming 
lands,  that  Daniel  Broadhead,  Esq.,  then  prominent  in 
the  history  of  Northampton  County,  as  the  name  is  yet 
in  that  section  of  country,  wrote  to  Governor  Hamilton, 
February  24,  1754,  that  "there  has  been  and  is,  great 
disquietude  amongst  the  people  of  these  parts,  occasioned 
by  some  New  England  gentlemen,  to  such  a  degree 
that  they  are  all,  or  the  majority  of  them,  going  to  quit 
or  sell  their  lands  for  trifles,  and  to  my  certain  knowl- 
edge, many  of  them  have  advanced  money  on  such 
occasions,  in  order  that  they  might  secure  rights  from 
the  New  England  Proprietaries,  which  right  I  suppose 
is  intended  to  be  on  Sasquehannah  at  a  place  called 
Wyomink."8 

The  Provincial  Council  of  Pennsylvania  recommend- 
ed Governor  Hamilton  to  write  to  the  Governor  of 
Connecticut,  "to  stop  the  departure  of  their  people  on 
a  dangerous  enterprise  as  this,"  and  "forthwith  dis- 
patch Conrad  Weiser  to  the  Six  Nations  and  those  at 
Wyoming,  to  put  them  upon  their  guard  against  those 
proceedings."3  Governor  Fitch  replied  that  he  "knew 
nothing  of  any  thing  being  done  by  the  Government 
to  countenance  such  a  proceeding  as  you  intimate,  and 

1  CoL  Rec.,  vol.  v.,  p.  73G.  8  Ibid.,  p.  757.  »  Ibid.,  p.  758. 


76  HISTORY    OF   THIi 

as  I  conclude,  is  going  on  among  some  of  our  people." 
Mr.  Armstrong  reported  to  the  Government,  "that  the 
people  of  Connecticut  are  most  earnestly  and  seriously 
determined  to  make  a  settlement  on  the  Susquehanna, 
within  the  latitude  of  the  province,  relying  on  the 
words  of  th«»ir  grants,  which  extend  to  the  South  Sea, 
provided  that  they  can  succeed  in  a  purchase  of  these  lands 
from  the  Six  Nations,  which  they  are  now  attempting 
"by  the  means  of  Colonel  Johnson  and  Mr.  Lydias  of 
Albany,  having  subscribed  a  thousand  pieces  of  eight 
for  that  purpose,  each  giving  four  dollars  for  what  they 
call  a  Eight."  > 

Under  date  of  December  2,  1754,  five  months  after 
the  successful  negotiations  for  Wyoming,  James  Alex- 
ander wrote  to  Governor  Morris  that  he  believed  that 
"more  vigorous  measures  will  be  wanting  to  nip  this 
affair  in  the  bud,  than  writing  to  governors  and  magis- 
trates, or  employing  a  few  rangers,  as  I  before  proposed. 
I  question  if  less  will  do,  than  a  superior  number  to  the 
Connecticut  men,  women,  and  children,  that  come,  andbring 
them  to  Philadelphia;  the  women  and  children  to  ship  off 
to  Governor  Fitch,  the  men  to  imprison  till  bailed  or  list 
for  Ohio*  this  done  twice  or  thrice  will  terrify  others 
from  coming ;  and  one  or  two  thousand  pounds  laid 
now  out  in  this  service,  may  save  scores  of  thousands 
that  it  may  afterwards  cost.  I  doubt  not,  Connecticut 
will  amuse  and  give  good  words  till  a  great  number 
be  settled,  and  then  bid  defiance."'4 

Every  movement  in  Hartford,  where  the  interests  of 
these  two  companies  were  discussed  publicly  and  freely, 
was  watched  by  persons  employed  by  Pennsylvania 
to  do  so,  who,  in  December,  1754,  reported  the  pros- 
pects and  development  of  the  organization  to  Governor 

1  Col.  Roc.,  vol.  v.,  pp.  773-4. 

1  A  rcrj  humane  way  to  dispose  of  peaceful  settlers,  to  have  them  enlist  in  the 
French  and  Indian  war  on  the  Ohio  I 
'  Col.  Rec.,  vol.  vi.,  p.  267. 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  77 

Morris,  thus:  "There  was  a  great  meeting  about  a  fort- 
night ago  in  Hartford,  of  the  people  concerned  in  the 
design' d.  The  original  shares  are  six  hundred.  The 
scheme  stood  thus.  They  made  a  purse,  each  man  pay- 
ing four  dollars  towards  the  purchase,  &c.,  but  since 
that  they  have  [been]  obliged  to  pay  five  more,  so  that 
the  original  shares  of  the  purchase 'tis  nine  dollars  a 
man.  These  sharers  engaged  to  go  themselves,  or  to 
procure  one  to  go  in  their  stead  to  the  Sasquehannah, 
and  there  to  make  a  settlement,  build  a  building,  clear 
so  much  land,  &c.,  on  their  respective  lots  in  a  given 
time.  The  grand  emigration  does  not  propose  to  go  forth 
till  all  be  quietly  settled,  but  in  the  mean  time,  'tis  said 
there  will  be  some  individuals  going."1 

In  spite  of  talks  and  treaties,  Wyoming,  full  of  natives 
reluctant  to  yield  possession  of  their  plain  to  the  spoiler 
of  their  heritage,  remained  unpeopled  and  untouched 
by  the  whites.  Even  some  of  the  Cayuga  Indians, 
seduced  into  French  interests,  inimical  to  the  English, 
hearing  that  "a  lot  of  people  from  New  England  had 
formed  themselves  into  a  body  to  settle  the  lands  on 
Susquehanna,  and  especially  Sea-Jiau-towano  (Wyoming) 
threatened,  if  they  done  so,  to  first  kill  all  their  creatures^ 
and  then  if  they  did  not  desist,  they  themselves  would 
all  be  killed,  without  distinction,  let  the  consequences 
be  what  it  would."2  This  threat  of  "  Tachnechdorus,  the 
chief  of  Smamockin,  of  the  Cayiuker,"  was  carried  into 
execution  at  Wyoming  a  few  years  later,  when  the  first 
settlement  here  was  destroyed,  the  emigrants  shot  and 
scalped  by  the  same  band  that  murdered  Teedyuscung  in 
his  Susquehanna  wigwam. 

The  colony  of  Connecticut,  aware  of  the  extent  of  their 
original  grant,  and  conscious  of  the  integrity  of  the 
Indian  purchase  of  Wyoming  by  the  Susquehanna  Com- 

.  '  Col.  Kec.,  vol.  vi.,  pp.  267-8. 

*  Pennsylvania  Archives,  1748-1756,  pp.  259-60. 


78  HISTORY    OF   THE 

pany,  gave  consent  to  establish  a  settlement  here.  In 
the  summer  of  1755  the  company  "sent  out  a  number  of 
persons  to  Wyoming,  accompanied  by  their  surveyors 
and  agents,  to  commence  a  settlement.  On  their  arrival, 
they  found  the  Indians  in  a  state  of  war  with  the  English 
colonies  ;  and  the  news  of  the  defeat  of  General  Braddock 
having  been  received  at  Wyoming,  produced  such  an 
animating  effect  upon  the  Nanticoke  tribe  of  Indians, 
that  the  members  of  the  new  colony  would  probably 
have  been  retained  as  prisoners  had  it  not  been  for  the  inter- 
ference of  some  of  the  principal  chieftains  of  the  Delaware 
Indians,  and  particularly  of  Tedeuscund,  who  retained 
their  attachment  to  their  Christian  brethren  of  the  Mora- 
vian church,  and  their  friendship  in  some  degree  for  the 
English.  The  members  of  the  colony,  consequently, 
returned  to  Connecticut,  and  the  attempt  to  form  a  set- 
tlement at  Wyoming  was  abandoned  until  a  more  favor- 
able opportunity."1 

The  efforts  of  the  Moravian  missionaries  from  Gnaden- 
hutten  and  Bethlehem,  to  introduce  Christian  influences 
along  the  foliage  of  the  Indian  forest,  were  not  altogethe 
in  vain.  At  MacTiwiMlusing  (Wyalusing)3  a  settlement 
had  been  made  by  these  zealous  and  determined  German 
brethren,  under  the  pastorship  of  the  Rev.  David  Zeis- 
berger,  which  flourished  through  all  the  intermediate  In- 
dian wars  and  massacres  up  until  1770,  when,  as  the 
territory  occupied  by  them  had  been  sold  to  the  Connec- 
ticut people,  the  Moravians  removed  to  Ohio,  to  whither 
the  Delawares  had  preceded  them.  Living  on  the  great 
canoe-route  and  war-path  from  Onondaga  to  Wyoming, 
these  heroic  missionaries,  who  had  sacrificed  every  social 
comfort  for  the  stern  incidents  of  border  life,  with  no 
ambition  but  the  good  and  welfare  of  the  race  they  sought 
to  elevate,  were  left  unharmed  by  the  warriors  desolating 
the  country  around  them. 

• 

1  Chapman,  p.  65.  '  licckewelder. 


LAOKAWANNA   VALLEY.  79 

The  Colonial  Records  give  an  account  of  a  council  held 
July  11,  1760,  with  a  large  number  of  Minisinks,  ]N"anti- 
cokes,  and  Delawares,  "from  an  Indian  town  called  Micli- 
alloasen  or  Wighalooscon,  about  fifty  or  sixty  miles  above 
Wyomink,  on  the  Susquehannah,"1  but  while  it  was  visited 
by  these  missionaries,  previous  to  this  it  was  not  chosen 
by  them  for  a  permanent  abode  until  May  9,  1765. 
"  Having  fixed  on  a  convenient  spot  for  a  settlement,  they 
immediately  began  to  erect  a  town,  which,  when  com- 
pleted, consisted  of  thirteen  Indian  huts,  and  upward  of 
forty  houses  built  of  wood,  in  the  European  manner, 
besides  a  dwelling  for  the  missionaries.  In  the  middle  of 
the  street,  which  was  eighty  feet  broad,  stood  a  large  and 
neat  chapel.  The  adjoining  lands  were  laid  out  into  neat 
gardens  ;  and  between  the  town  and  the  river,  about  two 
hundred  and  fifty  acres  were  divided  into  regular  planta- 
tions of  Indian  corn.  The  burying-ground  was  situated 
at  some  distance  back  of  the  buildings.  Each  family  had 
its  own  boat.  To  this  place  they  gave  the  name  of  Frie- 
denshuetten  (Huts  of  Peace).  This  new  settlement  soon 
assumed  a  very  flourishing  appearance."2 

The  Wyalusing  Indians  exhibited  toward  the  whites 
with  whom  they  came  in  contact  a  conciliatory  and  Chris- 
tian disposition.  At  a  council  held  at  the  State  House  in 
Philadelphia,  September  17,  1763,  John  Curtis  spoke  for 
the  Wyalusing  Indians  as  follows  : — 

"Brothers  : — After  the  treaty,  two  years  ago,  as  the  In- 
dians were  returning  home,  a  Delaware  was  killed.  As 
soon  as  the  news  reached  the  Indian  country,  some  of  his 
relations  were  so  exasperated,  that  four  of  them  immedi- 
ately set  off  and  came  down  with  an  intention  to  kill  some 
of  the  white  folks.  On  their  way  they  called  at  Wigha- 
lousin  and  stopt  there.  When  they  informed  us  of  their 
design,  the  Indians  of  Wighalousin,  men,  women,  and 
children,  did  all  in  their  power  to  dissuade  them  from  it, 

1  CoL  Rec.,  voL  viii.,  p.  484  *  Christian  Library. 


80  HISTORY   OF   THE 

and  joined  in  a  collection  of  wampum1  and  delivered  it 
to  them  to  pacify  them,  on  which  they  returned  home."1 

Nor  was  the  Laekawanna  part  of  Wyoming  without  its 
spiritual  advisers  as  early  as  October  26,  1755.  At  the 
request  of  the  friendly  Indians  living  on  the  Susquehanna 
and  Lee-kaurjli-linnt  (Laekawanna),  the  Moravian  mis- 
sionaries of  Bethlehem  visited  Wyoming  at  this  time 
(to  use  the  Indian's  own  phrase),  uto  speak  words  to  them 
of  their  God  and  Creator  as  often  as  they  desire  it.": 

They  remained  six  days  at  "  Waiomiug,  the  Shawanese 
town,  and  at  Leckaiw.ke,  the  Minising  town."  They 
preached  twice  at  Leckaweke,*  where  they  found  the 
natives  enjoying  their  yearly  thanksgiving  harvest-feast 
with  song  and  dance,  interpolating  their  songs  with  an 
occasional  yell  or  war-whoop,  secure  in  their  corn-fields 
and  "well  affected  towards  the  English,"5  to  whom  they 
gave  every  outward  assurance  of  friendship.  Twenty- 
eight  days  after  this,  Gnadenhutten  was  devastated, 
and  no  white  settlement  in  Pennsylvania,  above  Bethle- 
hem, escaped  wholly  from  the  uplifted  tomahawk.  The 
Indian  town  of  Nescopicken  (Nescopick),  one  day's  jour- 
ney from  Wyoming,  became  the  head-quarters  of  the 
French  arid  Indians.6  Not  a  single  white  person  lived  in 
either  of  the  valleys  of  Wyoming  or  Laekawanna.  The 
Indians,  won  over  by  the  shrewdness  of  the  French,  bent 
on  conquest  and  carnage,  went  even  below  the  Blue  Moun- 
tains to  the  Tulpehocking,  within  thirty  miles  of  Philadel- 


or  Wainpon,  called  also  AVampnmpeng;  a  kind  of  money  in  use 
among  the  Indians.  It  was  a  kind  of  bead  made  of  shells  of  the  great  cone.!-, 
muscle,  Ac.,  and  curiously  wrought  and  polished,  with  a  hole  through  them.  They 
were  of  different  colors,  as  black,  blue,  red  and  white,  and  purple:  the  l:;>t  of 
whidi  were  wrought  by  the  Five  Nations.  Six  of  the  white,  and  three  of  tin- 
black  or  blue  passed  for  a  penny.  —  TrumbuU's  U.  S..  vol.  i.,  p.  23.  In  16G7.  Warupon 
was  made  a  tender  by  law  for  the  payment  of  debts,  '-not  exceeding  40  shillings, 
at  8  white  or  4  black  for  a  penny;  this  was  repealed  in  MJ71."  —  Douglas,  vol.  L, 
p.  4:!7. 

*  Pa   Arch.,  1700.  »  Ibid..  1755,  p.  402. 

4  Either  Assarughney,  Capoose,  or  an  Indian  town  at  the  Lackawaek. 

'  1'a.  Arch.,  1755,  pp.  459-60.  •  Ibid.,  1760,  p.  508. 


LACK  A  WANNA   VALLEy.  81 

pliia,  unresisted.  Along  the  Delaware,  from  Easton  to 
Broadhead'  s,  the  country  was  absolutely  deserted.  Broad- 
head' s  place  was  attacked,  and  bravely  defended  by  the 
courageous  inmates.  In  fact,  Lower  Smithfield,  where 
Broadhead' s  clearing  was  located,  was  so  constantly 
threatened  by  the  arrowed  warriors,  that  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin, in  July,  1756,  ordered  a  company  of  foot  to  be  raised 
"of  fifty  able  men  to  protect  the  inhabitants  while  they 
thresh  out  and  secure  their  corn,"  and  scout  from  time 
to  time  for  one  month,  and  "for  pay,  to  receive  six  dollars 
per  month,  and  one  dollar  extra  for  use  of  gun  and 
blanket."  The  men  were  notified  that  if  they  should  kill 
any  Indians  while  thus  ranging,  "forty  dollars  will  be 
allowed  and  paid  by  the  Government  for  each  scalp  of  an 
Indian  so  killed."1  This  is  the -first  recorded  instance 
where  a  premium  was  offered  for  scalps  in  the  vicinity  of 
Wyoming.2  No  fortunes,  however,  where  made  by  scalp 
gatherers. 

After  Braddock's  memorable  defeat  in  July,  1755,  the 
whole  frontier  of  Pennsylvania  was  left  so  destitute  of 
protection,  that  several  friendly  Indian  chiefs  of  the  Sus- 
quehanna  tribes  visited  Philadelphia,  and  urged  upon  the 
Government  the  importance  of  building  such  places  of 
defense,  which  if  they  failed  to  do  all  the  tribes  now 
peaceably  inclined,  would  raise  the  hatchet  as  auxiliaries 
of  the  exultant  French.  This  prudent  advice,  however, 
was  not  taken  until  after  the  Lehigh  village  of  Grnaden- 
hutten  had  been  obliterated  by  the  torch,  when  a  chain 
of  simple  forts  or  block-houses  were  erected  along  the 
Susquehanna  and  Delaware.  It  is  impossible  at  the  pres- 
ent day,  to  ascertain  the  exact  location  of  these  forts. 
"Those  west- ward  of  the  Sasquehana,"  the  Pennsylvania 
Archives  inform  us,  "are  about  twenty  miles  asunder, 
and  those  between  Sasquehana  and  Delaware  about 

1  Pa.  Arch.,  1756,  p.  516. 

4  As  early  as  1689,  in  the  beginning  of  King  Philip's  war,  one  hundred  pounds 
was  offered  for  Indian  scalps  by  New  England  officials. 
6 


82  HISTORY    OF   THE 

ten."  The  fort  at  Shamokin  was  built  in  July,  1755,  from 
logs  huge  and  hewn.  Fort  Allen,  at  Gnadenhutten,  was 
built  in  January,  1756.  The  fort  at  Wyoming  and  the  one 
asked  for  at  Adjouquay  by  the  Iroquois  chiefs  were  erect- 
ed the  same  year.1  These  forts  were  strongly  built,  stock- 
aded, and  of  ample  capacity  to  accommodate  the  sparsely 
settled  places  around  them  in  any  exigency.  From 
twenty  to  fifty  men  were  stationed  in  these  protecting  out- 
posts, until  after  the  treaty  of  1758  fulfilled  the  expecta- 
tions of  peace,  when  many  of  them  were  abandoned.  The 
warriors  at  Tioga  and  Wyoming  and  Lackawanna  were 
estimated  at  this  time  at  seven  hundred,  fifty  of  whom 
were  Monseys,  at  Capoose. 

Cushietunck  (Cochecton),  on  the  upper  Delaware,  was 
settled  by  the  Delaware  Company  in  1757,  which,  place, 
in  spite  of  colonial  feuds,  or  Pennymite  resistance,  pros- 
pered in  its  aspirations  and  development.  Cochecton, 
like  Wyoming,  was  claimed  by  Pennsylvania  as  "lying 
in  the  upper  part  of  Northampton  County,  opposite  the 
Jersey  Station  Point,"  and  the  same  vexatious  measures 
employed  in  one  place  were  also  used  in  the  other  to 
expel  the  New  England  comers. 

A  mere  glimpse  of  this  section  of  country  as  it  appeared 
to  Charles  Tomson,  and  Christian  Frederic  Post,  who 
journeyed  toward  Wyoming  and  Lee-haw-hanna  in  1758, 
by  order  of  the  Governor  of  Pennsylvania,  and  at  the 
request  of  the  Indians,  is  interesting  in  an  historical  light, 
as  reflecting  the  shadows  of  one  hundred  and  ten  years 
ago.  These  Indian  civilizers  left  Philadelphia,  June  7, 
1758,  and  in  two  days  reached  Fort  Allen,  on  the  Lehigh, 
where  they  engaged  Moses  Tetamy  and  Isaac  Still,  and 
three  other  Indians,  to  accompany  them. 

"On  Sunday  morning  we  set  forward  pretty  early,  and 
by  12  o'clock  reached  the  Nescopekun  Mountain,  within 
fourteen  or  fifteen  miles  of  Wyoming.  Here  we  met  nine 

1  Pa.  Arch.,  1748-1756. 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  83 

Indians  traveling  down  to  Bethlehem.  They  had  left 
Wyoming  the  day  before,  and  had  been  six  days  from 
Chenango,  a  Town  of  the  Nanticokes  on  Susquehanna, 
about  half  way  between  Owegey  and  Ossewingo.  There 
was  one  Nanticoke,  one  Monsey  Captain,  one  Delaware, 
four  Mawhiccons,  and  two  Squaws.  Upon  meeting  them, 
we  stopped  and  inquired  the  news,  and  from  several 
questions  asked,  we  learned  that  Teedyuscung  was  well 
and  at  Wyoming,  that  all  was  quiet  among  the  Nan- 
ticokes, that  their  principal  men  were  at  the  Council  at 
Onondaga,  which  was  not  yet  broke  up  ;  that  Baek- 
sinosa  was  at  Lee-JiaugTi-liunt  (Lackawanna),  but  that  he 
was  preparing  to  go  somewhere,  he  said  to  his  own 
Country.  Being  informed  of  our  going  to  Wyoming  with 
good  news  to  all  the"  Indians,  they  told  us  that  they 
thought  it  was  by  no  means  safe  for  us  to  proceed  ;  that 
strange  Indians  were  thick  in  the  woods  about  Wyoming ; 
that  a  party  was  seen  but  four  days  ago  whose  Language 
none  of  the  Delawares  there  understood,  nor  did  they 
know  of  what  Nation  they  were.  This-  alarmed  our  In- 
dians, they  pressed  us  to  turn  back  with  this  Company, 
and  make  all  haste  for  Fort  Allen,  and  two  of  them  would 
go  and  invite  Teedyuscung  to  come  to  us  there.  This  we 
objected  to,  on  account  of  losing  time,  so  we  proposed  to 
go  forward  to  the  Wyoming  Hills,  and  there  wait  till  two 
of  our  Company  went  forward  and  informed  Teedyuscung 
of  our  coming,  and  know  of  him  whether  it  would  be 
safe  to  go  to  the  Town.  The  Indians  we  met  thought  it 
dangerous  to  proceed  any  farther,  as  they  had  seen  fresh 
Tracks  crossing  the  Path  in  two  or  three  places  between 
this  and  Wyoming,  and  at  one  place  not  half  a  mile  from 
where  we  then  were.  Upon  this  it  was  proposed  and 
agreed  upon,  to  go  back  to  the  east  side  of  the  Hills,  and 
there  lodge  to-night,  till  two  of  our  Indians  went  and 
invited  Teedyuscung  to  come  to  us.  Next  day  Teedyus- 
cung came  to  us."1  After  a  long  talk  and  dinner  with 

1  Pa.  Arch.,  1758,  pp.  412-22. 


84  HISTORY   OF   THE 

Teedyuscung  and  other  chiefs,  from  the  valley,  they  were 
made  familiar  with  all  the  news,  rumors,  and  complaints 
of  the  Indians,  and  sent  back,  as  Teedyuscung  assured 
them  that  it  was  absolutely  unsafe  for  them  to  venture 
farther.  They  also  reported  that  "Backsinosa,  with 
about  one  hundred  men,  lives  yet  at  Lee-haugh-hunt "  l 
(Lacka wanna),  at  Assarughney,  a  place  of  so  much  import- 
ance that  a  friendly  Indian  who  passed  there  a  few  days 
previous,  "  saw  four  Canoes  made  of  bark,  and  two  Floats 
there  hid  in  the  bushes,"2  which  he  learned  had  just  been 
used  by  a  party  coming  from  Broadhead's,  by  the  way  of 
Lee-haugh-Tiunt  and  Capoose. 

After  the  purchase  of  Wyoming  lands  in  1754  by  the 
Connecticut  Susquehanna  Company,  Pennsylvania  awak- 
ened to  the  importance  of  cultivating  more  intimate  rela- 
tions with  the  Indians.  Teedyuscung  was  informed  by 
the  Provincial  Council,  that  "7iis  continuance  at  Wio- 
ming  is  of  great  service."  3  The  natives  being  too  lazy  or 
too  little  skilled  in  agricultural  affairs  to  supply  their 
wigwams  with  vegetable  food,  brought  it  in  canoes  from 
Fort  Augusta,  sixty  miles  below,,  thus  often  exhausting  the 
supply  around  Sunbury  and  Northumberland.  In  May, 
1755,  the  Indians  on  the  Susquehanna  were  reported 
starving  because  of  the  scarcity  of  deer.4  To  obviate  this, 
as  well  as  to  carry  out  the  policy  instituted  by  Pennsyl- 
vania, "fifty  or  sixty  Carpenters,  Masons,  and  Laborers, 
were  sent  to  Wyoming  to  build  and  plant  for  the  Indians. 
After  a  very  fatiguing  march  they  arrived  at  Wyoming  on 
the  22d  May,  1758,  and  put  the  hands  to  work  the  next 
day.  As  the  Battoes  did  not  arrive  from  Fort  Augusta 
at  the  time  appointed,  we  were  brought  to  very  short 
allowance  in  provisions,  &c.  For  several  days  we  had  no 
bread  at  all,  which  created  no  little  uneasiness  among  the 
men.  We  kept  working  until  the  27th,  when  Joseph 


1  Pa.  Arch.,  1758,  p.  421.  *  CoL  Roc.,  vol.  viii,  p.  127. 

»  Ibid.,  p.  138.  4  Pa.  Arch.,  1758,  p.  310. 

I 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  85 

Croker,  one  of  our  masons,  was  killed  and  scalped  by  six 
of  the  enemy  Indians  ;  this  misfortune  made  our  men 
uneasy.  The  next  day,  the  Battoes  arrived  with  provi- 
sions, which  enabled  us  to  carry  on  the  work  and  finish 
ten  houses.  We  also  plowed  some  ground  for  them  to 
plant  in,  and  split  some  rails  to  fence  it ;  after  which  they 
thought  it  proper  to  let  us  know  that  it  was  late  in  the 
season,  and  the  grass  grown  very  high,  so  that  the  ground 
when  plowed  was  not  fit  for  planting  but  in  a  few  places, 
such  as  old  Towns  and  the  like,  we  might  return  until  a 
more  favorable  time,  which  we  complied  with  on  Friday, 
the  2d  June,  and  got  safe  Tuesday  evening  following."1 

On  the  same  day  that  this  party  returned  to  Fort 
Augusta,  Moses  Tetamy  and  Isaac  Still,  both  Indian  inter- 
preters, left  Philadelphia  to  visit  the  Monseys  at  Mini- 
sinks,  for  the  Government.  The  fourth  day's  journey  by 
the  way  of  the  warriors'  path  over  the  Lehigh  Mountain, 
brought  them  to  Wyoming,  where  they  were  welcomed 
and  treated  with  great  consideration  as  public  messengers. 
After  staying  all  night  at  Wyoming,  they  left  early  in  the 
morning  on  horseback,  and  at  night  "came  to  TenkgTia- 
ndke  (Tunkhannock),  about  as  far  above  Wyoming  as 
from  Wyoming  to  Fort  Allen.  This  is  an  old  Town,  no- 
body lives  there,  but  over  the  river  we  saw  some  Minisink 
Indians,  Hunters,  who  called  to  us,  and  when  we  went 
over  treated  us  kindly,  and  gave  us  some  Bear  meat  and 
venison.  The  road  from  Wyoming  to  Tenghanaoke  is 
broken  and  hilly."2 

The  Western  Indians  held  a  great  council  over  the  Ohio 
in  June,  1760.  Frederic  Post  and  John  Hays  attempted  to 
accompany  Teedyuscung  thither,  but  the  two  interpreters 
were  denied  passage  through  the  Seneca  country.  A  descrip- 
tion of  their  journey  through  Wyoming,  as  given  in  the 
words  of  their  journal,  can  not  fail  to  interest  very  many : — 

"  Saturday,  May  10. — Heassie  wether  :   Sett  off  from 

1  Col  Rec.,  vol.  yiii.,  pp.  134-5.  a  Pa.  Arch.,  1756,  p.  509. 


86  HISTORY   OF   TIIK 

fort  Allen  at  Eight  o'  Clock,  and  traveled  till  it  was  Late 
through  a  vast  Desert ;  Lodged  in  the  Woods. 

"Sunday,  llth. — Sett  to  the  way  Early  and  Arived  at 
Wioming  in  the  Evening,  where  we  were  Informed  that 
Teedyuscung  was  Set  off  on  his  Journey  this  Morning, 
but  they  sent  for  him  Imediately  on  our  Coming. 

"Monday,  12th. — Teedyuscung  Came  home  About 
Eleven  o' Clock,  and  we  had  several  Conferences  with  him 
this  Day. 

"Tuesday,  13th. — Wrought  at  Makeing  Belts  and 
Strings  of  our  Wampum,  was  used  very  Kindly,  and 
talked  of  Going  Next  Day. 

"  Wed'y,  14th. — Very  Rainy  Wether,  so  that  we 
Could  not  set  out,  So  we  followed  our  old  Business  of 
Belt  making. 

"Thursday,  15th.— Wether  the  Same :  Made  Belts. 

"  Friday,  16th. — Designed  Going,  but  Teedyuscung 
would  not  Go  until  he  had  a  field  of  Corn  planted  first, 
and  we  all  asisted  him  and  planted  it  this  Day. 

"  Satturday,  17th. — Set  of  Early  and  traveled  smartly, 
Crossed  a  Large  Creek  about  one  o' Clock,  called  Ah-la- 
Jicni-ie  (Lackawanna  1),  and  so  followed  Our  Course  up  the 
East  Side  of  the  Sisquhana  River  till  Night,  and  Set  up 
our  tents  in  an  Old  Indian  Town  called  Quelootama,  Be- 
ing fourteen  in  Number  in  all. 

"Sunday,  18th. — Wet  Weather,  Nevertheless  we  trav- 
eled Smartly  Cross  a  very  Large  Creek  called  Wash-co- 
Tcing  (Meshoppen),  Lodged  on  the  Banks  of  Sisquhana, 
and  had  a  very  Wet  Night  of  it. 

"Monday,  19th. — Set  off  Early,  tho  wet,  and  Arived  at 
a  town  called  Qui-lia-loo-sing  (Wyalusing),  the  Gov- 
enours  Name  Wampoonham,  a  very  Religious  Civilized 
man  in  his  own  way,  and  Shewd  us  a  great  Deal  of 
Kindness,  and  we  held  a  Conference  with  him  this 
Evening,  and  when  over,  Mr.  Post  Gave  us  a  Sermon,  at 
their  Request. 

"Tuesday,   20th.— They  Called    us    to    Council,   and 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  87 

seemed  to  be  very  friendly,  and  Delivered  to  Teedyuscung 
three  prisoners  By  a  string  and  promised  to  bring 
them  Soon  down ;  this  town  is  Situated  on  Sisquhana, 
East  side,  about  twenty  Houses  full  of  People,  Very  Good 
Land,  and  Good  Indian  Buildings,  all  New ;  had  Sermon 
this  Evining  again. 

"Wednsday,  21st. — They  told  us  there  was  another 
prisnor  in  this  town,  but  the  man  that  had  hir  would 
not  Consent  to  Give  hir  Up  yet,  but  if  he  Did  not 
he  Should  Leave  their  town  ;  We  Set  off  about  Eleven 
o'Clock,  and  Crossed  Qui-ha-loo-sing  Creek  about  a  mile 
above  the  town  ;  We  traveled  Through  Swamps,  Rocks, 
and  Mountains  about  15  Miles,  then  came  to  the  River, 
and  took  up  Lodging  on  the  Bank." 

Thursday  and  Friday  they  visited  Diohaga,  Snake  Hole, 
and  Asinsan.  At  the  last-named  place  "the  Indians 
Began  to  Sacrifice  to  their  God,  and  Spent  the  Day  in 
a  very  Odd  manner,  Howling  and  Danceing,  Raveling 
Like  Wolves,  and  Painted  frightfull  as  Divels. 

"Monday,  26th. — The  Indians,  Haveing  Got  Rum,  Got 
Drunk,  all  in  General,  Except  some  old  men  ;  and  Teedy- 
uscung Behaved  well  on  this  Occasion,  for  when  his  Sone 
brought  in  the  Kegg  of  Rum,  he  would  not  taste  it ;  we 
were  very  much  Abused  and  Scolded  by  the  Indians,  and 
thretened  Often  to  Host  us.  They  Bid  us  Welcome  to  this 
town,  but  if  we  came  any  farther  they  would  Rost  us  in 
the  fire. 

"  There  was  a  great  Sacrifice  of  a  hogg,  which  gathered 
a  Great  Number  of  them  together,  and  after  their  Sacrifi- 
cial Rites  were  over,  they  Encouraged  us  to  Go  on,  But 
we  Could  not  See  it  Clear,  for  the  old  father  Mingo  always 
Sent  us  word  not  Go,  but  that  Teedyuscung  and  his  In- 
dians Might  Go,  but  that  we  should  not  Go,  nor  any 
White  man  Should  pas  through  their  Country." 

After  visiting  various  Indian  towns,  witnessing  deer 
sacrifices,  and  holding  councils  with  the  Delawares,  Won- 
amies,  and  Monseys,  they  concluded  to  leturn  home,  as 


88  HI6TOUY   OF   THE 

the  old  Indian  "agreement  was  that  no  white  man  Should 
pas  throw  their  Country,  for  fear  of  Spyes  to  see  their 
Land." 

The  fertile  meadows  now  extending  at  certain  intervals 
along  the  river  from  Binghamton  to  Tunkhannock,  they 
describe  as  "an  Ordinary  Country,  Nothing  but  Moun- 
tains and  Rocks  and  pine  timber,  save  the  Small  Low 
lands  the  Indians  plants  their  Corn  on." 

On  the  ninth  day  of  the  homeward  journey,  interlined 
by  many  vexations  and  delays,  and  lodging  in  the  woods, 
where  "  the  Knates  Bit  so  hard,"  they  approached  Wyo- 
ming. "About  Eleven  o' Clock  we  came  to  a  narrow 
pass  where  the  horses,  with  Hight  of  the  River,  was 
obliged  to  Swime  a  considerable  way,  and  had  to  all  get 
in  the  Canoo,  then  took  our  horses  again  and  had  to  Swim 
another  Large  Creek  and  Climbe  many  a  hill,  but  at 
Lenth  we  Got  to  Weoming,  thank  God. 

"  Saturday,  28th. — Set  of  from  Weoming  and  traveled 
Over  the  Mountains,  and  Lodged  in  the  Woods,  and  had 
very  wet  Weather,"  &c.,  &C.1 

In  April,  1761,  before  the  snow-drifts  had  melted  from 
the  cold  gorges  of  the  mountain,  the  route  had  been  sur- 
veyed by  a  party  which  "  marked  trees  for  twenty  miles 
from  the  Delaware  in  the  way  toward  Susquehannah, 
and  laid  out  lots  for  a  town  at  a  place  called  Lcigliwack- 
son,  or  Lackervak,  about  eight  miles  westward  from 
Casheitunck."!  Teedyuscung  himself  visited  Philadel- 
phia during  this  month,  to  express  to  the  Governor  his 
uneasiness  about  this  settlement,  which  he  reported  was 
so  unsafe  for  his  pale  brother  "that  they  (the  Connecti- 
cut men)  kept  continual  watch  for  fear  the  Indians  would 
shoot  them.'" 

In  August,  1762,  the  adventurous  spirit  of  New  England 
emigration  began  to  move  toward  Wyoming  with  greater 
success  than  ever  before.  A  few  miles  below  the  village 

1  Pa.  Arch.,  1760.  pp.  735-41.    »  Col.  Rec.,  vol.  viii.,  p.  614.    *  Ibid.,  p.  695. 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  89 

of  Assarughney,  and  a  mile  or  two  above  the  Indian 
toVh  at  Wyoming,  runs  into  the  Susquehanna  a  short, 
sluggish  creek,  celebrated  afar  by  the  name  of  Mill  Greek. 

Two  hundred  persons  from  the  colony  of  Connecticut 
began  a  settlement  on  the  shaded  margin  of  this  stream  at 
this  time.  "  They  found  the  valley  covered  with  woods, 
except  a  few  acres  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  Shaw- 
anese  and  Wyoming  towns,  which  had  been  improved  by 
the  Indians  in  the  cultivation  of  their  corn,  and  which 
was  still  in  part  occupied  by  them."1  A  few  acres  of  land 
was  cleared  and  sown  with  wheat  and  rye,  after  which  the 
emigrants  concealed  their  agricultural  implements  in  the 
ground  and  returned  to  Connecticut  to  winter,  returning 
in  the  spring. 

Teedyuscung,  jealous  of  his  plains  yielding  with  the 
simple  tillage  of  the  squaws,  again  visited  Philadelphia, 
Nov.  19,  1762,  and  sought  a  private  interview  with  the 
Governor,  to  complain  of  the  settlement  upon  Lec-7ia- 
wanock  Creek.  The  Governor  desired  Teedyuscung  to 
speak  nothing  but  the  honest  truth,  which  he  promised  to 
do,  and  then  addressed  him  as  follows  : — "Brother :  You 
may  remember  that  some  time  ago  I  told  you  that  I  should 
be  obliged  to  remove  from  Wyomink  on  account  of  the  New 
England  people,  and  I  now  acquaint  you  that  soon  after 
I  returned  to  Wyomink  from  Lancaster,  there  came  150 
of  those  people,  furnished  with  all  sorts  of  Tools,  as  well 
for  building  as  Husbandry,  and  declared  that  they  had 
bought  those  Lands  from  the  Six  Nations,  and  would  set- 
tle them,  and  were  actually  going  to  build  themselves 
Houses,  and  settle  upon  a  creek  called  Leckawanock, 
about  seven  or  eight  miles  above  Wyomink.  I  threatened 
them  hard,  and  declared  I  would  carry  them  to  the  Gov- 
ernor at  Philadelphia  ;  and  when  they  heard  me  threaten 
them  in  this  manner,  they  said  they  would  go  away  and 
consult  their  own  Governor  ;  for  if  they  were  carried  to 

1  Chapman. 


90  HISTORY    OF   THE 

Philadelphia,  they  might  be  detained  there  Seven  Years, 
and  they  said  further,  that  since  the  Indians  were  uneasy 
at  this  purchase,  if  they  would  give  them  back  the  money 
it  had  cost  them,  which  was  one  or  two  Bushels  of  Dol- 
lars, they  would  give  them  their  Lands  again.  Ten  days 
after  these  were  gone,  there  came  other  fourteen  men,  and 
made  us  the  same  speeches,  declaring  that  they  expected 
above  three  thousand  would  come  and  settle?  the  Wyo- 
mink  Lands  in  the  Spring,  and  they  had  with  them  a  Saw 
and  Saw-Mill  Tools,  proposing  to  go  directly  and  build  a 
Saw-Mill  about  a  mile  above  where  I  live,  but  upon  my 
threatening  those  in  the  same  manner  I  did  the  former 
Company,  they  went  away,  and,  as  I  was  told,  buried 
their  tools  somewhere  in  the  Woods.  These  people  desired 
me  to  assist  them  in  surveying  the  Lands,  and  told  me 
they  would  reward  me  handsomely  for  my  trouble,  but  I 
refused  to  have  any  thing  to  do  with  them.  Brother : 
Six  days  after  these  were  gone  there  came  eight  other 
white  men  and  a  mulatto,  and  said  the  very  same  things 
to  me  that  the  others  had  said,  and  immediately  I  got 
together  my  Council,  and  as  soon  as  we  had  finished  our 
Consultations,  I  told  these  people  that  I  actually  would 
confine  them  and  carry  them  to  Philadelphia  and  deliver 
them  to  the  Governor  there,  upon  which  they  went  away, 
saying  they  would  go  to  their  own  Governor,  and  come 
again  with  great  numbers  in  the  Spring.  Some  of  these 
people  stole  my  Horse  that  I  bought  at  Easton,  but  they 
gave  me  another  Horse  and  five  pounds  in  money,  in 
satisfaction  for  my  Horse.  Brother:  Tho'  I  threatened  these 
people  hard,  that  I  would  confine  them  and  carry  them 
down  to  you,  yet  I  did  not  mean  actually  to  do  it,  remem- 
bering that  you  charged  me  not  to  strike  any  White  Man, 
tho'  they  should  come,  but  to  send  you  the  earliest 
notice  of  their  coming  that  was  in  my  power.  Brother  : 
Before  I  got  up  to  Wyomink  from  Lancaster,  there  had 
come  a  great  Body  of  these  New  England  People  with 
intent  actually  to  settle  the  Land,  but  the  Six  Nations 


LACKA  WANNA   VALLEY.  91 

passing  by  at  that  time  from  Lancaster,  sent  to  let  them 
know  that  they  should  not  be  permitted  to  settle  any  of 
these  Lands,  and  on  their  expressing  great  resentment 
against  them,  and  threatening  them  if  they  persisted,  they 
went  away.  This  I  was  told  by  Thomas  King,  who  was 
left  behind  at  Wyomink  by  the  Six  Nations,  to  tell  me 
that  they  intended  to  lay  this  whole  matter  before  the 
great  Council  at  Onondagoe,  and  that  they  would  send  for 
me  and  my  Indians  to  come  to  Albany  in  the  Spring, 
where  they  are  to  have  a  meeting  with  the  New  England 
people,  and  desired  that  I  would  be  quiet  till  I  should 
receive  their  Message,  and  then  come  to  Albany.  On 
this  speech  of  Thomas  King's  we  met  together  in  Council, 
and  agreed  not  to  give  him  any  promise  to  come  to 
Albany,  but  to  advise  the  Governor  of  Pennsylvania  of 
this,  and  take  his  advice  what  to  do,  and  if  he  will  go 
with  us  and  advise  us  to  go,  we  will  go  in  case  we  are 
sent  for  in  the  Spring.  Brother :  Surely  as  you  have  a 
General  of  the  King's  Armies  here,  he  might  hinder  these 
people  from  coming  and  disturbing  us  in  our  possessions. 
Brother :  About  six  days  after  I  left  Wyomink  I  received 
a  Belt,  which  was  brought  me  by  the  Indian  man  Com- 
pass ;  it  came  first  to  Nutimus,  and  from  him  to  me.  By 
that  Belt,  Beaver  desired  that  I  and  the  Delawares,  the 
Wapings,  and  Mohickons,  settled  at  Wyomink,  would 
remove  thence  and  come  and  live  at  Allegheny.  Brother : 
I  have  one  thing  more  to  say,  and  I  shall  have  finished 
all  I  have  to  say  at  this  time.  Brother :  You  may  remem- 
ber that  at  the  Treaty  at  Easton  we  were  promised  that  a 
Schoolmaster  and  Ministers  should  be  sent  to  instruct  us 
in  religion,  and  to  teach  us  to  read  and  write.  As  none 
have  yet  been  provided  for  us,  I  desire  to  know  what 
you  intend  to  do  in  this  matter.  I  have  now  done."  1 

The  Governor,  in  reply,  informed  Teedyuscung,  that  as 
Wyoming  lands  had  never  yet  been  purchased  from  the 

1  Col.  Rec.,  voL  be.,  pp.  6-8. 


92  HISTORY   OF   THE 

Six  Nations,  he  had  sent  a  messenger  to  warn  the  Connec- 
ticut people  away  from  Lechawanock  Creek,  who  met 
them  returning  because  of  the  rough  manner  spoken  to 
by  the  Indians.  After  commending  Teedyuscung  for  his 
fidelity  and  good  behavior,  the  Governor  said,  "Brother: 
You  know  that  your  Uncles,  the  Six  Nations,  have  kin- 
dled a  fire  for  you  at  Wyomink,  and  desired  you  would 
stay  there  and  watch,  and  give  them  notice  if  any  White 
people  should  come  to  take  away  the  Lands  from  them, 
and  that  you  would  not  suffer  them  to  do  it.  Be  assured 
that  this  winter,  measures  will  be  tciken  to  prevent  these 
troublesome  people  from  coming  to  disturb  you.  On 
these  considerations  T  desire  you  to  remain  quiet  where 
you  are,  and  not  move  away,  as  you  seem  to  have  no 
inclinations  to  go  away  only  on  account  of  these  New 
England  disturbers.  The  times  have  been  so  unsettled, 
that  there  has  been  no  opportunity  of  sending  Ministers 
and  Schoolmasters  among  you.  Now  there  is  a  likeli- 
hood of  a  general  peace  being  soon  established,  if  you 
determine  still  to  continue  at  Wyomink,  I  shall  consider 
of  this  matter  and  send  you  an  answer  at  a  proper 
time."  ' 

The  complaints  of  Teedyuscung,  nor  the  threats  of 
Lieutenant-Governor  Hamilton,  were  hardly  necessary,  as 
the  next  year  (1763)  witnessed  the  murder  of  the  king 
of  the  Delawares,  in  his  simple  cabin  by  the  river  side, 
and  the  flight  or  massacre  of  the  defenseless  yeomanry  at 
Wyoming.  When  Teedyuscung  sank  the  tomahawk  into 
the  skull  of  the  offending  Iroquois  warrior  on  his  way  to 
Easton,  in  1758,  unavenged  and  apparently  unnoticed  at 
the  time,  he  wrote  his  own  death-warrant  in  the  blood  of 
the  fallen  chief.  Indian  revenge  slumbers  only  to  in- 
crease its  intensity.  Under  the  garb  of  friendship, he  was 
visited  at  his  village  by  some  warriors  of  the  Six  Nations 
from  the  upper  branches  of  the  Susquehanna,  plied  boun- 

1  CoL  Rcc.,  voL  ii.,  p.  9. 


LACKAWANNA  VALLEY.  93 

tifully  with  liquor,  of  which  he  was  passionately  fond, 
andwhile  thus  inebriated  in  his  wigwam,  helpless,  asleep, 
and  alone,  the  celebrated  and  venerable  chieftain  perish- 
ed in  the  flames,  on  the  night  of  April  19,  1763.  His  own 
dwelling,  and  twenty  others  surrounding  it,  had  been  set 
on  fire  simultaneously,  by  these  emissaries  from  the  Six 
Nations,  who  thus  sought  and  found  revenge  upon  the 
unforgotten  and  unresisting  offender. 

Some  four  months  previous  to  this  the  Yankees  had 
returned  to  the  valley  with  their  families,  bringing  along 
cattle,  sheep,  hogs,  and  grain  sufficient  to  last  them  until 
the  coming  harvest.  Traffic  and  fur-trading  had  sprung 
up  with  the  surrounding  tribes,  with  whom  the  most 
friendly  and  harmonious  relations  had  hitherto  supposed 
to  have  existed,  when  suddenly,  on  the  afternoon  of  the 
fifteenth  of  October,  while  the  farmers  were  hard  at  work 
in  the  field,  unsuspicious  of  approaching  danger,  they 
were  surrounded  by  "a  party  of  Indians,  who  massacred 
about  twenty  persons,1  took  several  prisoners,  and  hav- 
ing seized  upon  the  live  stock,  drove  it  toward  their 
town.  Those  who  escaped,  hastened  to  their  dwellings, 
gave  the  alarm  to  the  families  of  those  who  were  killed, 
and  the  remainder  of  the  colonists — men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren— fled  precipitately  to  the  mountains,  from  whence 
they  beheld  the  smoke  arising  from  their  late  habitations, 
and  the  savages  feasting  on  the  remains  of  their  little 
property.  They  had  taken  no  provisions  with  them, 
except  what  they  had  hastily  seized  in  their  flight,  and 
must  pass  through  a  wilderness  sixty  miles  in  extent 
before  they  could  reach  the  Delaware  River.  They  had 
left  brothers,  husbands,  and  sons  to  the  mercy  of  the  sav- 
ages ;  they  had  no  means  of  defense,  in  case  they  should 


1  The  following  persons  were  among  the  killed : — "  Rev.  Wm.  Marsh,  Thos. 
Marsh,  Timothy  Hollister,  Timothy  Hollister,  Jr.,  Isaac  Hollister,  Nathan  Terry, 
Wright  Smith,  Daniel  Baldwin  and  wife,  Isaac  Wiggins,  Zeruah  Whitney.  Mr. 
Shepherd,  and  a  son  of  Daniel  Baldwin,  were  taken  prisoners.'1 — Annals  of  Lu- 
zerne. 


94  HISTORY   OF   THE 

be  attacked,  and  found  themselves  exposed  to  the  cold 
winds  of  autumn  without  sufficient  raiment.  With  these 
melancholy  recollections  and  cheerless  prospects  did  the 
fugitives  commence  a  journey  of  two  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  on  foot."  l 

Thus  by  one  stroke,  seldom  surpassed  in  suddenness 
or  atrocity,  by  the  same  savages  that  slew  Teedyuscung 
and  then  attempted  to  fix  the  ignominious  crime  upon  the 
New  England  men,  having  no  knowledge  of  its  inception 
or  no  part  in  its  execution,  every  living  white  person  was 
swept  from  Wyoming  in  an  hour,  and  the  valley  again  left 
in  the  sole  occupancy  of  the  Indian.  Their  removal  or  de- 
struction at  this  time,  if  more  vindictive  and  cruel,  was  no 
more  certain  than  that  vouchsafed  them  by  the  Provin- 
cial Government,  had  a  few  more  days  of  quiet  husbandry 
have  been  allowed  them  by  the  Indians.  On  the  Tuesday 
before  the  first  massacre,  October  17,  17G3,  Major  Clayton 
marched  to  Wyoming1  to  carry  out  the  instructions  of  the 
Provincial  Government,  already  anticipated  by  the  fire- 
brand and  hatchet.  He  "met  with  no  Indians,  but 
found  the  New  Englanders  who  had  been  killed  and 
scalped  a  day  or  two  before  they  got  there.  They  buried 
the  dead,  nine  men  and  one  woman,  who  had  been  most 
cruelly  butchered  ;  the  woman  was  roasted,  and  had  two 
hinges  in  her  hands,  supposed  to  have  been  put  in  red 
hot,  and  several  of  the  men  had  awls  thrust  into  their 
eyes,  and  spears,  arrows,  pitchforks,  &c.,  sticking  in 
their  bodies.  TJiey  burnt  what  houses  tlie  Indians  had 
left,  and  destroyed  a  quantity  of  Indian  corn.  The 
enemy's  tracks  were  up  the  river  toward  Wighaloe- 
sing."  3 

On  the  20th  October,  Governor  Hamilton  ordered 
Colonel  James  Bard  to  Wyoming  as  a  commissioner,  not 
to  look  after  the  warriors  thus  arrayed  for  murder  and 


1  Chapman.  *  Pa.  Arch.,  1763,  p.  125. 

1  See  Letter  from  Paxton,  Lancaster  County,  dated  Oct.  23,  1763. 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  95 

mischief,  but  "to  require  and  command  the  Inhabitants, 
in  His  Majesty's  TSax&Q,  forthwith  to  desist  from  their  said 
undertaking,  and  to  depart  and  remove  from  thence,"  &c.1 

It  is  hardly  possible  that  news  of  the  massacre  carried 
by  the  slow  canoe-route,  or  narrow  foot-path,  could  have 
reached  Philadelphia  at  this  time,  as  no  allusion  is  made 
to  it  until  October  25,  1763,  when  the  Rev.  John  Elder, 
of  Paxton,  captain  of  two  Lancaster  companies,  wrote  as 
follows  to  Governor  Hamilton:  "Sir,  In  a  Lett'r  I  writ 
to  your  Hon'r  the  17th  Inst,  I  acquainted  you  that  it 
then  was  impossible  to  suspend  the  Wyoming  Expedition. 
The  party  is  now  returned,  and  I  shall  not  trouble  your 
Hon'r  with  my  account  of  their  proceedings,  as  Major 
Clayton  informs  me  that  he  transmitted  to  you,  from  Fort 
Augusta,  a  particular  journal  of  their  transactions  from 
their  leaving  Hunters  till  they  returned  to  Augusta.2  The 
mangled  Carcases  of  these  unhappy  people  presented  to 
our  Jroops  a  melancholy  Scene,  which  had  been  acted  not 
above  two  days  before  their  arrival ;  and  by  the  way  the 
Savages  came  into  the  Town,  it  appears  they  were  the 
same  party  that  committed  the  Ravages  in  Northampton 
County,  and  as  they  set  off  from  Wyoming  up  the  same 
Branch  of  the  River,  towards  Wihilusing,  and  from  sev- 
eral other  Circumstances,  it's  evident,  that  till  that 
Branch  is  cleared  of  the  enemy,  the  frontier  settlem'ts 
will  be  in  no  safety." 3 

Nothing  whatever  was  done  by  the  authorities  of  Penn- 
sylvania toward  punishing,  or  even  rebuking,  the  authors 
of  this  preconcerted  destruction  of  life  and  property,  made 
more  atrocious  by  the  fact  that  settlers  living  in  North- 
ampton County  uttered  no  complaint,  and  interposed 
neither  inquiry  nor  remonstrance  at  this  or  any  other 
time. 


1  Col.  Rec.,  vol.  br.,  p.  61. 

5  No  such  Report   appears    either  in  the  Pennsylvania  Archived    or  Rec- 
ords. 

*  Pennsylvania  Archives,  1760-76,  p.  127. 


96  HISTORY   OF   TIIE 

In  fact  so  great  and  so  apparent  was  this  stoic  indiffer- 
ence exhibited  toward  the  welfare  of  a  feeble  but  ener- 
getic colony,  struggling  alike  with  starvation  and  savage 
treachery,  that  Governor  Amherst  of  New  York  wrote  to 
Governor  Hamilton  that,  "  I  can  not  help  repeating  my 
surprise  at  the  infatuation  of  the  people  in  your  Province, 
who  tamely  look  on  while  their  brethren  are  butchered 
by  the  Savages,  when,  without  doubt,  it  is  in  their  power, 
by  exerting  a  proper  spirit,  not  only. to  protect  the  settle- 
ments, but  to  punish  any  Indians  that  are  hardy  enough 
to  disturb  them."  * 

While  there  seems  to  have  been  no  complicity,  either 
charged  or  suspected,  between  the  provincial  authorities 
of  Pennsylvania  and  the  disaffected  portion  of  the  Six 
Nations  in  regard  to  the  annihilation  of  the  young  settle- 
ment at  Wyoming,  no  one  can  peruse  the  Pennsylvania 
Archives  or  the  Colonial  Records  of  Pennsylvania,  em- 
bracing as  they  do,  the  earliest  written  history  of  Wyo- 
ming, without  reflections  not  flattering  to  the  magnanimity 
either  of  the  Province  or  the  State. 

In  the  earlier  history  of  the  valley,  barbarities  were 
sometimes  practiced,  both  by  the  red  and  the  white  man, 
upon  the  weaker  party.  Conrad  Weiser,  after  visiting 
Wyoming,  in  1755,  describes  the  capture  of  an  Indian, 
who  "  begged  his  life,  but  (shocking  to  me)  they  shot  him 
in  the  midst  of  them,  scalped  him,  and  threw  his  body 
into  the  river.""  Two  months  after  the  Connecticut  set- 
tlers were  slaughtered  and  first  expelled  from  Wyoming, 
the  Conestogae  Indians — the  remains  of  a  tribe  of  the  Six 
Nations— were  massacred  in  Lancaster  by  the  whites.  On 
the  14th  of  December,  17(53,  these  Moravian  Indians,  who 
had  lived  under  the  faith  of  the  Government  for  sixty 
years,  were  shot  and  clubbed  in  cold  blood,  and  every 
indignity  practiced  upon  the  women  and  children,  whose 
age  and  sex  plead  alike  in  vain  to  the  avenging  hand  of 

1  Col.  Rcc.  voL  ix.,  p.  62.  *  Ibid.,  voL  vi.,  p.  763. 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  97 

the  Paxton  men.  "  They  surrounded  the  small  village  of 
Indian  huts,  and  just  at  break  of  day  broke  in  upon  them 
all  at  once.  Only  three  men,  two  women,  and  a  young 
boy,  were  found  at  home.  These  poor,  defenseless  crea- 
tures were  immediately  fired  upon,  stabbed,  and  hatch- 
eted  to  death!  The  good  Shehaes,  who  was  very  old, 
having  assisted  at  the  second  treaty  held  with  Mr.  Penn, 
in  1701,  was,  among  the  rest,  cut  to  pieces  in  his  bed  !  The 
Magistrates  of  Lancaster  sent  out  and  collected  the  remain- 
ing Indians,  promised  them  protection,  and  put  them  in 
the  work-house,  a  strong  building,  as  a  place  of  greatest 
safety.  On  the  27th  of  December,  these  cruel  men,  armed 
as  before,  broke  open  the  door,  and  entered  with  the  ut- 
most fury  in  their  countenances.  When  the  fourteen  poor 
wretches  saw  no  possible  protection  nor  escape,  and  being 
without  the  least  weapon  of  defense,  they  divided  their 
little  families,  and  children  clinging  to  their  parents  ;  they 
fell  on  their  faces,  protested  their  innocence,  declared 
their  love  to  the  English,  and  that  in  their  whole  lives 
they  had  never  done  them  injury ;  and  in  this  position 
they  all  received  the  hatchet !  Men,  women,  and  children 
were  every  one  inhumanly  murdered  in  cold  blood."  * 

This  ferocious  transaction,  the  authors  of  which, 
although  well  known  in  the  community,  ever  remained 
unpunished,  created  among  the  Indian  tribes  through- 
out the  country  a  profound  sensation,  and  for  months 
awakened  no  little  solicitude  in  the  head  of  the  Govern- 
ment of  Pennsylvania.  Governor  Penn,  justly  indignant, 
and  conscious  of  the  great  wrong  inflicted  upon  the 
Indians,  whom  the  official  men  of  the  province  had  sworn 
to  protect,  fearing  its  deplorable  effect  upon  the  usually 
stoical  but  ever- vindictive  savage,  promptly  and  boldly 
denounced  the  guilty  party  as  "villainous  and  murder- 
ous," and  issued  warrants  for  their  arrest ;  and  yet,  al- 


1  See  Prout's  History  of  Pennsylvania,  vol.  i.,  pp.  326-8 ;   also,  Col.  Eec.,  vol. 
ix.,  pp.  102-5,  107,  112-13,  121-3,  125,  127-9,  132,  137,  142,  170,  409. 
7 


98  HISTORY   OF   THE 

though  they  were  living  within  the  county,  they  were 
never  reprimanded,  arrested,  nor  punished. 

The  property  of  these  tomahawked  natives,  consisting 
of  "three  horses,  two  belts  of  wampum,"  a  number  of 
deeds,  treaties,  and  documents,  written  on  parchment, 
and  signed  by  Wm.  Penn,  in  1701,  and  Logan  and  others, 
were  subsequently  returned  to  their  relatives  in  the 
Indian  country. 

This  wanton  and  wicked  breach  of  faith  on  the  part  of 
citizens  of  Lancaster  and  Paxton,  contributed  to  influence 
the  Moravian  Indians  at  Wyal  using  and  elsewhere  along 
the  Susquehanna  to  remove  westward,  and  had  very 
much  to  do  henceforth  toward  inspiring  a  spirit  of  war- 
fere  and  revenge  along  the  border,  as  well  as  to  palliate 
and  excuse  the  treatment  of  their  captives  taken  from 
the  whites. 

In  a  message  to  Gov.  Penn  from  the  Assembly,  in 
Feb.,  1768.  a  portion  of  these  outrages  are  thus  enumer- 
ated :  "In  the  year  1703,  the  cruel  Massacre  of  Twenty 
Indians,  chiefly  of  the  Six  Nations,  were  perpetrated  at 
Conestago  and  Lancaster.  In  the  same  year  a  Delaware 
Chief  met  with  the  same  fate  between  Sherman's  Valley 
and  Juniata.  In  1765,  a  Chief  of  the  Six  Nations  was 
murdered  near  Bedford.  In  the  year  1766,  a  principal 
warrior  of  the  Delawares  was  killed  between  Red  Stone 
creek  and  Cheat  river  ;  and  three  Delaware  Chiefs  were 
robbed  and  murdered  near  Fort  Pitt,  by  two  inhabitants 
of  this  Province.  An  Indian  was  lately  murdered  in 
Northampton  County ;  besides  the  late  barbarity  com- 
mitted by  Frederic  Stump  and  his  servant  on  ten  Indians 
at  Middle  Creek.  And  not  one  of  those  murderers  have 
been  brought  to  punishment"1  England  and  France 
having  concluded  a  definite  peace  in  1763,  hostilities 
ceased  throughout  the -colonial  settlements. 

In  September,  1760,  an  adventurous  trader,  named  John 

1  Col.  Rcc.,  voL  is.,  pp.  478-9. 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  99 

Anderson,  had  a  store  of  goods  at  Wyoming,  for  traffic 
with  the  red  men,  and  was  complained  of  by  the  Nanti- 
coke,  Conoys,  and  Mohickons,  from  the  Council  Fires  at 
Chenango,  in  the  following  manner  to  John  Penn : — 
"Brother:  As  we  came  down  from  our  Country  we 
stopped  at  Wyoming,  where  we  had  a  Mine  in  two  places, 
and  we  discovered  that  some  white  People  had  been  at 
work  in  the  Mine,  and  had  filled  three  Canoes  with  the 
Ore  ;  and  we  saw  their  Tools  with  which  they  had  dug  it 
out  of  the  ground,  were  they  had  made  a  hole  at  least 
forty  feet  long,  and  five  or  six  feet  deep.  It  happened, 
formerly,  that  some  white  People  did  now  and  then  take 
only  a  small  bit,  and  carried  it  away,  but  these  People 
have  been  working  at  the  Mine,  and  have  filled  their 
canoes.  We  desire  you  will  tell  us  whether  you  know  any 
thing  of  this  matter,  or  if  it  be  done  by  your  Consent.  We 
are  informed  that  there  is  one  John  Anderson,  a  Trader, 
now  living  at  Wyoming,  and  we  suspect  that  either  he  or 
somebody  employed  by  him  has  robbed  our  mine.  This 
Man  has  a  Store  of  Goods  there,  and  it  may  happen,  when 
the  Indians  see  their  Mine  robbed,  they  will  come  and 
take  away  his  Goods." l 

Governor  Penn  replied  that  he  knew  nothing  of  the 
mine  or  Anderson,  who  had  settled  in  the  Indian  country 
without  his  knowledge  or  wish.  "But  you  know," 
addressing  the  chief,  "that  notwithstanding  all  our  Care, 
as  it  is  such  a  Distance,  People  may  go  there  and  we 
know  nothing  of  it."2  The  knowledge  of  this  silver 
mine  perished  with  the  race  that  knew  it. 

For  six  years,  aside  from  the  intrusion  of  these  ex- 
plorers and  traders,  Wyoming  was  left  in  its  native  soli- 
tude, and  as  the  intervening  years  make  no  history  for 
the  valley  then  in  dispute  between  Pennsylvania  and 
Connecticut,  a  brief  synopsis  of  the  different  charters 
and  grants  relating  to  the  disputed  territory  claimed 

1  Col.  Rec.,  vol.  Lr.  pp.  329-30.  * Ibid.,  p.  332. 


100  HISTORY   OF   THE 

by  the  respective  parties,  and  a  mere  outline  of  the  claim 
and  controversy  arising  from  the  same,  will  not  only  be 
expected  by  the  intelligent  reader,  but  it  is  indispensable 
to  a  proper  appreciation  of  the  history  of  the  Lackawanna 
Valley,  then  within  the  contested  limit.  In  fact,  the  earli- 
est history  of  the  valley,  could  not  be  complete  nor 
understood  without  such  a  general  exposition  of  grants 
and  charters,  running  along  down  into  the  Connecticut 
claim,  from  the  first  grant  of  land  in  America,  in  1606,  by 
the  English  Government. 

As  early  as  1606,  King  James  of  England,  jealous  of  the 
ambitious  French,  advancing  to  traffic  on  the  Indian  shore 
of  the  western  continent,  divided  that  part  of  North  Amer- 
ica, lying  between  the  34th  and  45th  degrees  of  latitude,  in- 
to two  portions.  The  northern  part  he  granted  by  patent 
to  Thomas  Hanham  and  others,  who  associated  themselves 
for  the  purpose  of  opening  a  trade  with  the  Indians  for 
skins,  furs,  and  tobacco.  Forty  noblemen,  knights,  and 
gentlemen  were  incorporated^  March  3,  1620,  by  King 
James,  into  a  company  known  as  "  The  Councils  estab- 
lished at  Plymouth,  in  the  County  of  Devon,  for  the 
Planting,  Ruling,  and  Governing  of  New  England,  in 
America,'1'11  to  whom  and  their  assigns  were  granted  all 
"That  part  of  America,  lying  and  being  in  breadth  from 
the  forty  degrees  of  the  said  Northerly  latitude  from  the 
Equinoctial  line,  to  forty-eight  degrees  of  the  said  North- 
erly latitude,  inclusively,  and  in  length  of  and  within  all 
the  breadth  aforesaid,  throughout  the  mainland  from  sea 
to  sea,"  &c.2  While  the  governing  powers  and  privileges 
of  this  Plymouth  corporation  were  being  exercised  in 
England,  the  laws  and  regulations  of  the  body  were  to 
extend  over  New  England,  which  thus  derived  its  name 
from  this  grant.  Originally  embracing  all  of  New  Eng- 
land, portions  of  this  vast  territory  were  divided  and 
subdivided,  as  to  subsequently  form  the  New  England 

1  Trumbull.  »  Ibid. 


LACK  AW  ANN  A   VALLEY.  101 

States.  Each  sale  and  division  of  property  thus  effected, 
had  to  be  ratified  by  the  legislative  power  in  England  to 
make  it  valid  and  binding. 

A  portion  of  the  territory  of  the  Plymouth  Company 
was  sold  in  1628,  and  subsequently  became  the  State  of 
Massachusetts.  Another  portion,  now  forming  the  State 
of  Connecticut,  was  transferred  to  the  Earl  of  Warwick  in 
1630,  who,  in  March,  1631,  sold  the  same  territory  to  Lord 
Gay  and  fifteen  others.  It  embraced  "all  that  part  of 
New  England,  in  America,  which  lies  and  extends  itself 
from  a  river,  there  called  JSTarragansett  river,  the  space 
of  forty  leauges  upon  a  straight  line  near  the  shore,  to- 
wards the  southwest,  west  and  by  south,  or  west  as  the 
coast  lieth,  towards  Virginia,  acounting  three  English 
miles  to  the  leauge  ;  and,  also,  all  and  singular  the  lands 
and  hereditaments  whatsoever,  lying  and  being  within  the 
lands  aforesaid,  north  and  south  in  latitude  and  breadth, 
and  in  length  and  longitude,  of  and  within  all  the  breadth 
aforesaid,  throughout  the  main  lands  there,  from  the 
western  ocean  to  the  south  sea."1 

By  virtue  of  this  royal  grant,  a  small  band  of  energetic 
men  made  the  first  settlement  on  the  bank  of  the  Con- 
necticut River,  in  1633.  This  last-named  grant  was  sold 
in  1662  to  the  Free  Planters  of  the  Colony  of  Connecticut 
for  16,000  pounds  sterling.  King  Charles  the  Second 
confirmed  the  charter  to  the  Connecticut  colony,  of  "all 
that  part  in  our  dominion  in  New  England,  in  America, 
bounded  on  the  East  by  Naragansett  Bay,  where  the  said 
river  falleth  into  the  Sea,  and  on  the  North  by  the  line  of 
the  Massachusetts  plantation,  on  the  South  by  the  sea,  and 
in  longitude  as  the  line  of  the  Massachusetts  Colony  run- 
ning from  East  to  West  (that  is  to  say)  from  the  Naragan- 
sett  Bay  on  the  East,  to  the  South  sea  on  the  West  part." 

These  several  instruments,  taken  as  a  whole,  open  a  full 
view  of  the  ancient  territorial  limits  of  Connecticut.8 

1  TrumbulL  -  Chapman. 


102  HISTORY    OF   THE 

Forty  leagues  (120  miles)  along  the  coast  from  Narra- 
gansett  Bay  toward  Virginia,  would  terminate  very 
nearly  on  the  fortieth  degree  of  north  latitude,  fixed  as  a 
boundary  in  the  original  grant  to  the  Plymouth  Company 
and  would  embrace  the  comparative  little  territory  of 
both  Wyoming  and  Lackawanna  valleys. 

The  original  charter  of  William  Penn,  which  granted 
to  him  so  many  of  the  coal  and  iron-clad  valleys  and 
mountains  of  Pennsylvania,  and  which  subsequently 
developed  the  Pennymite  war  in  Wyoming,  dates  back  to 
March  4, 1681.  "  Out  of  a  commendable  desire  to  enlarge 
our  English  Empire,"  &c.,  Charles  the  Second  granted 
to  William  Penn,  "  all  that  tract  or  parte  of  hind  in 
America,  with  all  the  Islands  therein  conteyned,  as  the 
same  is  bounded  on  the  East  by  the  Delaware  river  from 
twelve  miles  distance,  Northwarde  of  New  Castle  Towne 
unto  the  three  and  fortieth  degree  of  Northern  latitude,  if 
the  said  River  doth  extend  soe  farre  Northwards.  But 
if  the  said  River  shall  not  extend  soe  farre  Northward 
then  by  the  said  River  soe  farre  as  it  doth  extend,  and 
from  the  head  of  the  said  River  the  Easterne  bounds  are 
to  bee  determined  by  a  meridian  line,  to  bee  drawn  from 
the  head  of  the  said  River  unto  the  three  and  fortieth 
degree,  the  said  land  to  extend  Westwards,  five  degrees 
in  longitude,  to  bee  computed  from  the  Easterne  Bounds, 
and  the  said  lands  to  bee  bounded  on  the  North  by  the 
beginning  of  the  three  and  fortieth  degree  of  Northern 
latitude,"  &C.1 

The  opposing  claims  of  Pennsylvania,  as  set  forth  by 
its  agents,  Messrs.  Bradford,  Read,  Wilson,  and  Sargeant, 
before  the  Court  of  Commission  assembled  at  Trenton, 
New  Jersey,  in  November,  1782,  to  finally  determine  the 
controversy  between  Pennsylvania  and  Connecticut  re- 
garding Wyoming,  will  be  found  in  ample  detail  in  the 
Pennsylvania  Archives,  1782-3.  They  claimed  Wyoming 

1  Sec  Col.  Rec.,  vol.  L  pp.  17-20,  for  copy  of  original  charter. 


LACK  AW  ANN  A   VALLEY.  103 

by  virtue  of  the  royal  purchase  of  Mr.  Penn,  who  with 
succeeding  proprietaries  had  negotiated  with  the  Indians 
for  the  full  and  absolute  right  of  pre-emption  for  all  the 
lands  in  dispute.  They  also  claimed  "  that  the  Northern 
bounds  have  always  been  deemed  to  extend  to  the  end 
of  the  forty-second  Degree,  where  the  figures  428  are  so 
marked  on  the  map  ;  the  River  Delaware  being  found  to 
extend  so  far  North  and  farther ;  the  said  River,  pursu- 
ing the  East  or  main  Branch  thereof,  above  the  Forks  at 
Easton,  hath  been  ever  deemed  to  be  one  Boundary  of 
Pennsylvania  from  twelve  miles  above  New  Castle,  on 
the  said  River,"  &C.1 

The  northern  part  of  the  territory  granted  to  William 
Penn,  spread  over  a  part  of  the  western  lands  before 
granted  to  the  colony  of  Connecticut,  equal  to  one  degree 
of  latitude  through  the  whole  breadth  of  said  grant. 

The  collisions,  running  through  thirteen  years  of  crim- 
son austerities  between  Pennsylvania  and  Connecticut  for 
jurisdiction  and  right  of  soil  in  Wyoming,  originated 
either  in  great  want  of  knowledge  of  the  topography  of 
America  by  the  English  Government,  or  an  unpardonable 
careless  exercise  of  it  in  regard  to  this  charter  to  William 
Penn,  which  thus  interfered  with  and  overlapped  lands 
already  sold  to  Connecticut.  Of  this  interference,  Mr. 
Penn  had  notice  at  the  time  of  his  taking  out  his  patent 
for  those  lands.2 

The  Indian  title  to  the  wilderness  overshadowing  the 
Schuylkill  and  " Lechhaiy  Hills"  (Lehigh)  had  been 
extinguished  as  early  as  1732  ;  and  the  land  about  the 
mouth  of  the  creek  called  Lechawac7isein  (Lackawaxen) 
was  purchased  of  the  Indians  by  the  Provincial  Govern- 
ment of  Pennsylvania  in  October,  1756  ;3  but  Wyoming, 
more  isolated  in  its  sylvan  solitude,  had  been  reserved  by 
the  tribes  controlling  it,  for  hunting-grounds  or  a  retreating 
place  long  after  their  intercourse  began  with  the  whites. 

1  See  Pa.  Arch.,  1782,  p.  701.        .   '  Ibid.,  p.  707.  *  Ibid.,  p.  722. ' 


104  HISTORY    OF   THE 

It  was  first  sold  by  them,  July  11,  1754,  as  before  related, 
to  the  Connecticut  Susquehanna  Company. 

It  will  be  readily  seen  that  the  charter  of  Connecticut, 
embracing  Wyoming,  was  given  nineteen  years  anterior 
to  that  of  Pennsylvania,  possessed  and  settled  by  Connecti- 
cut with  her  strong  and  sturdy  sons,  and  yet,  after  a  delib- 
eration of  over  five  weeks  in  1783,  the  adjusticating 
commissioners  at  Trenton,  gave  an  opinion  in  the  matter 
as  follows,  that  astonished  the  citizens  of  both  States  with 
its  brevity  and  its  bias  :— "  We  are  unanimously  of  Opin- 
ion that  the  State  of  Connecticut  has  no  Right  to  the  Lands 
in  Controversy.  We  are  also  unanimously  of  Opinion 
that  the  Jurisdiction  and  Pre-emption  of  all  the  Territory 
lying  within  the  Charter  Boundary  of  Pennsylvania,  and 
now  claimed  by  the  State  of  Connecticut,  do  of  Right 
belong  to  the  State  of  Pennsylvania.''1  This  decision, 
known  as  the  "Trenton  Decree,"  from  which  there  was 
no  possible  appeal  or  redress,  while  it  decided  the  ques- 
tion of  jurisdiction  only,  indicated  the  selfish  and  illib- 
eral spirit  that  would  and  that  did  ultimately  inspire  a 
judicial  opinion  in  regard  to  the  right  of  soil  already  held 
by  Connecticut  by  every  essential  condition  giving  valid- 
ity to  a  title,  viz. :  grant  from  the  king — purchase  of  the 
Boil  from  the  Indian  owners,  and  actual  occupancy  of  the 
same. 

Generations  have  been  born  and  buried  since  our  hill- 
sides and  villages,  now  exulting  and  expanding  in  their 
thrift,  knew  no  tranquillity  but  that  given  for  an  hour 
by  the  stronger  wielded  bayonet  of  one  rival  party  or 
the  other,  struggling  for  mastery  of  the  valley  ;  and  even 
while  the  Indian  wars  smote  down  a  father  or  a  son  with  no 
shroud  but  the  gloom  of  the  forest,  and  no  grave  but  some 
friendly  rock  yet  full  of  the  farewell  whispers  of  the  dead  ; 
or  even  when  the  Revolution  came  with  its  burden  borne 
cheerfully  and  valiantly  even  here,  the  Connecticut  set- 

1  Pa.  Arch.,  1733,  p.  732. 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  105 

tiers  had  hardly  a  moment' s  respite  from  officious  sheriffs, 
and  their  often  brutal  posses,  sent  out  by  Pennsylvania 
to  annoy,  imprison,  or  expel  the  naturally  quiet  people 
of  Wyoming. 

The  Connecticut  controversy  and  the  Pennymite  conten- 
tion for  Wyoming,  which  had  all  the  grand  features  of  an 
epic  poem,  has  long  ceased  to  occupy  the  public  mind  as 
it  did  prominently  for  a  half  a  century,  because  less  occa- 
sion for  its  existence  was  known  after  the  final  compro- 
mising law  of  1799  established  kind  and  harmonious 
relations  between  the  contending  parties  ;  but  no  one  can 
peruse  the  able  works  of  Peck,  Miner,  Chapman,  or 
Pearce,  or  wade  through  the  voluminous  official  papers 
of  the  State,  giving  such  vast  variety  and  abundance  of 
documentary  evidence  pertaining  to  this  matter,  without 
feeling  that  the  early  emigrants  from  Connecticut  who 
sought  out  and  settled  the  lands  of  the  Susquehanna  and 
Delaware  companies  at  Wyoming  and  Wallenpaupack  in 
the  best  faith,  were  shamefully  robbed  and  wronged  by 
unprincipled  persons  acting  by  and  with  the  authority  of 
Pennsylvania.  The  bad  spirit  evinced  by  either  party, 
as  far  as  it  relates  to  the  history  of  the  Lackawanna  Val- 
ley, will  be  briefly  noticed  in  a  future  page. 


GENERAL  HISTOEY — CONTINUED. 

To  obviate  trouble  with  a  portion  of  the  Indians  ren- 
dered dissatisfied  with  the  sale  of  Wyoming  lands  by  the 
representations  of  the  Penn  interests  inimical  to  the  sale, 
the  English  Government,  through  its  agents  in  America, 
held  a  treaty  at  Fort  Stanwix,  near  Oneida  Lake,  in  the 
fall  of  1768,  with  the  Six  Nations  ;  at  which  time  and  place 
the  most  friendly  assurances  were  given  and  received  by 
both  parties,  and  the  lands  on  the  Susquehanna  were 
ceded  to  the  English.  At  the  same  general  treaty,  some 
of  the  chiefs  of  the  Six  Nations,  willing  to  sell  their  lands 


106  HISTOEY   OF  THE 

to  as  many  parties  and  as  many  times  as  pay  would  be 
forthcoming,  gave  the  Proprietaries  of  Pennsylvania  a 
deed  of  Wyoming  lands  which  had  been  sold  nineteen 
years  precious  to  the  Susquehanna  Company. 

Immediately  after  the  close  of  this  Indian  Congress,  the 
Susquehanna  Company  held  a  meeting  at  Hartford,  and 
voted  to  settle  Wyoming  at  once.  It  was  also  "voted 
that  forty  Persons,  upwards  of  the  age  of  twenty-one 
years,  Proprietors  in  said  Purchase,  proceed  to  take  pos- 
session of  said  land  by  the  first  day  of  February  next, 
and  that  two  hundred  more  of  the'  age  aforesaid  join  the 
said  forty  as  early  in  the  Spring  as  may  be."  l  For  the 
purpose  of  encouraging  the  self-reliant  men  who  were 
expected  to  encounter  many  a  repelling  wave  as  they 
went  into  this  Indian  land,  the  sum  of  two  hundred 
pounds  was  appropriated  to  purchase  "  proper  materials, 
sustenance,  and  Provisions  for  said  forty."  Five  town- 
ships, each  five  miles  square,  were  to  be  laid  out  for  "the 
said  forty  and  the  said  two  hundred  persons,  reserving  and 
appropriating  three  whole  Rights  or  Shares  in  each  Town- 
ship for  the  Public  use  of  a  Gospel  Minister  and  Schools 
in  each  of  said  Towns,  and  also  reserving  for  the  use  of 
said  Company  all  Beds,  Mines,  Iron  Ore,  and  Coals."  s 
John  Jenkins,  Isaac  Tripp,  Benj.  Follett,  Wm.  Burk,  and 
Benj.  Shoemaker,  were  appointed  a  committee  to  exer- 
cise a  general  superintendence  over  the  affairs  of  the 
forty  settlers,  and  to  lay  out  and  prepare  a  road  through 
the  wilderness  to  Susquehanna  River.  Fifty  pounds, 
Connecticut  currency  ($167),  was  voted  this  committee  to 
build  this,  the  first  road  opened  from  the  East  to  Wyo- 
ming. This  trail  or  public  road  followed  the  warriors' 
path,  and,  unbridged  for  swamps  and  streams  sometimes 
formidable  indeed,  was  simply  widened  for  the  saddled 
horse. 

A  road  had  been  opened  to  Teedyuscung's  village  from 

1  Col.  Rec.,  vol.  ix.,  p.  070.  *  Ibii 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  107 

Sharaokin  in  1759.  Wyoming,  which  lay  in  serene 
grandeur  amid  her  mountain  shades,  had  been  watched 
by  Governor  Penn  with  an  extraordinary  appreciation  of 
its  importance  and  relations  to  his  own  Province.  Not 
only  this,  but  the  fear  of  a  new  Colony  or  Province,  dis- 
tinct from  that  of  Pennsylvania  or  Connecticut,  and  com- 
paratively independent  of  either,  to  embrace  Wyoming 
and  Lacka wanna  valleys,  Wallenpaupack,  and  Cochecton 
within  its  boundary,  contributed  much  toward  inspiring 
the  unyielding  opposition  of  Penn  to  any  movement  of 
men  aiming  to  develop  the  backwoods  of  Wyoming. 
After  the  Proprietaries'  purchase  of  these  lands  in  Novem- 
ber, 1768,  Governor  Penn  proceeded  forthwith  to  lease 
one,  hundred  acres  for  seven  years  to  Messrs.  Ogden,  Jen- 
kins, and  Stewart,  ostensibly  to  establish  an  Indian  trad- 
ing post,  but  really  to  baffle  the  efforts  of  the  Susque- 
haiina  Company  to  colonize  and  settle  the  territory,  and 
to  retain  possession  himself.  "These  lessees,-"  says 
Chapman,  "with  several  other  adventurers,  removed  to 
Wyoming  in  January,  1769,  and  took  possession  of  the 
improvements  made  by  the  Connecticut  people,  from 
which  they  had  been  driven  by  the  Indians  in  1763." 
The  forty  persons  sent  out  by  the  Susquehanna  Company 
from  Hartford,  arrived  on  the  ground,  February  8,  1769. 
"  On  their  arrival  at  the  place  where  they  had  built  a  log 
house  in  1763,  they  found  Captain  Amos  Ogden,  an  Indian 
Trader,  and  others  with  him,  had  entered  into  their  s'd 
house.  Our  Settlers,  not  willing  to  use  any  force  to  regain 
the  s'd  house  from  him  or  them,  set  themselves  to  build 
a  number  of  Log  Houses,  or  rather  Huts,  for  their  shelter, 
and  went  quietly  about  their  lawful  business  in  the  peace 
of  God  and  the  King."  1  The  forty  settlers  at  Mill  Creek 
were  taken  prisoners  by  the  Ogden  party,  carried  to 
Easton  jail,  seventy  miles  away,  promptly  released  on 
bail,  and  as  promptly  sought  their  Wyoming  cabins. 

1  Pa.  Arch,  1771,  p.  404. 


108  HISTORY   OF   THE 

In  the  month  of  March  following,  being  joined  by  some 
one  hundred  and  fifty  others  from  Connecticut  and  Lan- 
caster County,  Pennsylvania,  who,  finding  their  comrades 
at  Mill  Creek  under  bonds  to  appear  at  Easton  Court  dur- 
ing this  month,  stopped  at  the  mouth  of  the  Lackawanack, 
where  they  erected  some  rude  log  structures  for 
dwellings  and  defense.  When  the  first  party  of  New 
England  men  were  on  their  way  to  Wyoming  in  January, 
1769,  Thos.  Bennett,  of  Goshen,  New  York,  was  induced 
to  accompany  the  party  hither.  Immediately  after  the 
capture  and  partial  dispersion  of  the  settlers  at  Mill 
Creek,  he  went  with  some  "New  England  men  to  a  place 
called  Lamawanak,  and  there  built  a  Blockhouse,"1  for 
the  purpose  of  resisting  the  aggressions  both  of  the 
Pennymites  and  the  hostility  of  the  surrounding  Indians. 
After  Bennett's  arrest  by  the  Pennsylvania  authorities,  he 
endeavored  to  exculpate  himself  from  censure  by  affirm- 
ing "that  the  only  reason  of  his  ever  appearing  in  arms 
at  the  Fort  was  to  keep  Gentry  sometimes  in  his  turn, 
when  they  were  under  apprehensions  of  being  attacked 
by  the  Indians,  a  number  of  them  being  then  there,  who 
appeared  very  angry  and  painted,  and  threatening  to 
roast  a  Hog  in  the  Fort  and  have  a  dance  ;  and  that  the 
said  Indians  carried  off  a  Hog." 

"Nothing,"  says  Bancroft,  "could  restrain  the  Ameri- 
cans from  peopling  the  wilderness.  To  be  a  freeholder  was 
the  ruling  passion  of  the  New  England  man.  Marriages 
were  early  and  fruitful.  The  sons  as  they  grew  up, 
skilled  in  the  use  of  the  ax  and  the  rifle,  would,  one 
after  another,  move  from  the  old  homestead,  and  with 
a  wife,  a  yoke  of  oxen,  a  cow,  and  a  few  husbandry  tools, 
build  a  small  hut  in  some  new  plantation,  and  by  tasking 
every  faculty  of  mind  and  body,  win  for  themselves 
plenty  and  independence.  Such  were  they  who  began  to 
dwell  among  the  uutenanted  forests  that  rose  between  the 

1  Ta.  Arch.,  17CO-1776,  p.  391.  'Ibid.,  1771,  p.  392. 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  109 

Penobscot  and  the  Sainte  Croix,  or  in  the  New  Hamp- 
shire grants,  on  each  side  of  the  Green  Mountains,  or  in 
the  exquisitely  beautiful  Valley  of  Wyoming,  where,  on 
the  banks  of  the  Susquehanna,  the  wide  and  rich  meadows, 
shut  in  by  walls  of  wooded  mountains,  attracted  emi- 
grants from  Connecticut,  though  their  claim  of  right 
under  the  charter  of  their  native  colony  was  in  conflict 
with  the  territorial  jurisdiction  of  the  Proprietaries  of 
Pennsylvania."  1 

Of  the  forty  adventurers  plunging  into  the  forest  thus 
disputed,  to  be  greeted  only  with  writs  and  arrests  by 
the  Pennymites,  apprised  of  their  coming  by  swift-footed 
couriers  from  the  Delaware,  none  chose  to  stop  and  settle 
at  Capoose,  yet  watched  with  bow  and  battle-ax.  Hun- 
ters and  trappers  had  achieved  rare  sport  along  its  bor- 
ders, trodden  by  game  easily  secured,  but  the  emigrant, 
hopeful  and  heroic  as  he  came  from  his  home,  passed  by 
the  wigwams,  and  went  with  the  main  body  down  to  the 
mouth  of  the  stream. 

The  names  of  the  five  original  townships  laid  out  here, 
were  Wilkes  Barre,  Hanover,  Plymouth,  Kings-town, 
and  Pitts-town  ;  Providence,  or  "  Sixth  Town  of  ye  Ca- 
poose  Meadows,"  being  laid  out  and  added  in  1770. 
LacTcawannocJc  was  then  applied  to  the  country  in  the 
immediate  vicinity  of  the  mouth  of  the  stream,  embracing 
the  village  of  Asserughney,  occupied  by  the  swarthy 
aborigines.  It  was  in  the  new  laid-out  township  of  Pitts- 
town,  and  as  its  banks  were  clear  of  wood  for  five  miles, 
it  promised  economy  of  labor  in  cultivation,  and  was 
chosen  for  a  settlement  partly  for  this  reason,  and  partly 
because  of  the  unfriendly  occupancy  of  the  Mill  Creek 
clearing,  a  few  miles  below  it,  by  the  Pennymites. 

Although  all  persons  from  the  "Colony  of  Connecticut 
attempting  to  settle  upon  a  Large  Tract  of  Land,  within  the 
Limits  of  this  Province,  lying  at  and  between  Wyoming,  on 

1  Bancroft's  HLtory  United  States,  vol.  v.,  p.  165 


110  HISTORY    OF    THE 

the  River  Susquehanna,  and  Cushietunk,  on  the  River 
Delaware,"  were  notified  at  this  time  by  Governor  Penn, 
whose  eye  was  sleepless  upon  the  distant  valley,  to  leave 
the  settlements/or^  with,  the  solitude  of  the  Lackawanna, 
interrupted  only  by  the  low  babbling  of  brooks,  or  the 
dull  sounds  from  the  Indian  clearings,  began  to  attract  the 
emigrant,  who  came  hither  with  all  the  industrious  quali- 
fications belonging  to  the  New  England  character.  In 
fact,  civilization  was  never  carried  westward  into  the 
wilderness  by  a  more  gallant  and  deserving  body  of  men, 
than  those  who  formed  the  vanguard  of  this  frontier 
settlement.  Descending  from  the  same  stock  of  determined 
pioneers,  that  wrought  out  a  colony  amid  the  vales  and 
hills  of  Connecticut,  they  entered  with  equal  zeal  into 
this  new  acquisition,  hoping  to  achieve  greater  conquests 
with  the  plow  and  hard-swung  ax,  and,  if  need  be,  lay 
the  foundation  for  a  grand  commonwealth,  as  other 
provinces  had  been  laid  out  before. 

In  May,  1769,  Charles  Stewart,  Esq.,  writes  from 
"  Manor  of  Stoke."1  that  lie  had  but  twenty-four  men  to 
oppose  the  New  England  men,  of  whom,  ''one  hundred 
and  forty-six,  chiefly  on  horseback,  passed  by  our 
houses  this  afternoon  (May  1C,  1769),  about  three  o'clock, 
and  are  now  encamped  on  the  East  side  of  the  River.  From 
the  view  I  had  of  those  Gentry,  in  their  procession  by  our 
Houses,  they  appear  to  be  at  least  an  equal  number  of 
them  of  the  very  lowest  class,  but  are  almost  all  armed 
and  fit  for  mischief.'"'1 

Such  was  the  language,  and  such  the  bitterness  of  the 
reception  meted  out  to  the  new-comers  from  Paxton, 
entering  the  valley. 

It  was  thus  amidst  king's  writs,  posses,  and  arrests,  as 
will  be  seen,  and  all  the  exacting  severities  incident  to 

1  la  1700.  Wyoming  was  laid  out  into  two  vast  manors  by  Fennsylvanna  sur- 
veyors, viz. :  "  Manor  of  Stoke,"  embracing  the  east  side  of  the  Susquehanna, 
and  "Manor  of  Sunbury,"  extending  over  the  west  side. 

*  C.  .Stewart's  Letter,  May,  1769. 


LACK  A  WANNA   VALLEY.  Ill 

the  backwoodsman's  life  a  century  ago,  that  the  Paxton 
boy  forgot  his  fruitful  intervale,  and  the  Yankee  forsook 
his  stone-clad  homestead  in  Connecticut,  for  the  inhospi- 
table plains  of  Wyoming. 

Thirty-five  of  the  persons  thus  described  by  Mr. 
Stewart,  located  near  Pittston.  Their  names  were  : — 

"  Benj.  Shoemaker,  William  Leonard,  Azariah  Dean, 

John  McDowell,  John  Leonard,  John  Wheat, 

Samuel  Weyburn,  Samuel  Marvin,  John  Wharburt, 

John  Lee, Marvin,  Jacob  Welch, 

Joseph  Lee,  Rheuben  Hulburt,  Jabez  Cook, 

Thomas  Bennett,  Samuel  Clark,  Ebenezer  Nultrip, 

Benj.  Follett,  John  Gardner,  Chambers, 

Cornstack,  John  De  Long,  Gore, 

Daniel  Hains,  John  Smith,  Esq.,  &  his Babcock, 

John  McDowell,  Jr.,         two  sons, Smith Wright." 

Benj.  Shoemaker,  Jr.,       and Smith, 

Asher  Harrod,  Joseph  Moss, 

Although  many  of  these  men  subsequently  settled  in 
the  more  central  or  lower  townships,  they  at  this  time 
located  on  the  belt  of  ground  running  in  such  exquisite 
beauty  from  Campbell' s  Ledge  down  to  the  outlet  of  the 
Lackawanna. 

This  so  aroused  the  indignation  of  John  Jenkins,  Esq., 
sheriff  of  Northampton  County,  to  whom  was  intrusted  a 
general  supervision  of  the  Proprietaries'  interest  at  Wyo- 
ming, that  he  assembled  a  posse  to  arrest  or  drive  away 
the  settlers  into  the  cold  hospitality  of  the  woods.  He 
"went  to  Lacknawanak,  near  Wyoming,  on  Susque- 
hanna,  in  the  County  of  Northampton,  where  the  intrud- 
ers had  built  their  two  houses,  One  of  which  was  a  Strong 
Log  house  built  for  Defense  ;  that  the  said  Intruders 
betook  themselves  to  their  said  Houses,  and  declared  they 
would  not  give  up  the  Possession  of  the  said  Lands,  but 
would  maintain  the  same  as  their  own,  and  put  to  Death 
any  persons  that  attempted  to  dispossess  them  ;  that  the 
said  Justices,  after  long  and  fruitless  expostulation, 
recorded  the  forcible  Detainer,  and  this  Deponent,  by  their 


112  HISTORY    OF    THE 

Orders,  prepared  to  take  the  said  Intruders,  and  received 
two  Blows  from  some  of  them,  but  having  forced  into  one 
of  the  houses,  and  taken  those  that  were  therein,  the  rest 
surrendered,  and  the  whole  thirty  taken  into  Custody,"1 
and  carried  over  the  mountain  to  Easton  jail,  with  the 
exception  of  those  who  escaped  from  the  sheriff  while  on 
the  way." 

This  was  in  1709.  Having  friends  in  Pennsylvania, 
they  readily  obtained  bail,  and  immediately  returned  to 
Lacknawanak. 

The  summer  of  this  year,  now  agitated  and  then  paci- 
fied by  the  alternation  of  strength  of  the  respective  par- 
ties, left  the  Penny  mites  in  the  possession  of  the  valley. 
During  the  year  1770  the  intestine  feud,  from  which  the 
inhabitants  had  hoped  to  be  exempt,  resulted  in  the  tem- 
porary expulsion  of  the  Yankees.  The  following  is  "a 
list  of  Lackawany  who  drew  in  1770,  "3  and  were  thus 
expelled  :— 

"  Topez  "Williams,  by  Silas  Parks, 

P.  Williams,  Prime  Alden." 

In  1771  the  following  persons  "drew  lands  in  Lack- 
awanny"  :— 

"Jacob  Anguish,  David  Brown,  Ebenezer  West, 

Peter  Daman,  Martin  Weilson,  Samuel  Stubbs,  by 

Jobn  Osborn,  Elipolet  Stevens,  Austin  Hunt, 

John  Depeiw,  Dan1!  St.  John,  Ebenezer  Marcy,  by 

Levi  Green,  Elizar  Fillsbury,  Isaac  Allen, 

Peter  Mathews,  Stephen  Wilkox,  Caleb  Bates,  by 

James  Hesdale,  Richard  Woodward,  Win.  Hopkins. 

David  Sanford,  by  Sam'l  Slaughter, 
Jenks  Corey, 

In  the  Westmoreland  Records,  from  whose  musty  pages 
the  foregoing  list  of  names  is  taken,  is  the  following 
entry : — 

1  Pa.  Arch.,  17GO-7G,  p.  313. 

*  Sec  Miner's  Wyoming;  also  Pa.  A.rch .,  1763,  pp.  401-8. 

1  Westmoreland  Records. 


LACKA WANNA   VALLEY.  113 

"N.  B.  On  the  north  side  of  Lackawan,  drawd  lots, 
1772. 

Jeremiah  Blancliard,         Samuel  Slater,  Joseph  Fish, 

Abram  Harden,  John  Corey,  Ebenezer  Bachus. 

Ricbard  West,  Daniel  Haller, 

"Lotts  on  the  South  side  of  the  Lackawau  river. 


Johnathan  Corey, 
Ebenezer  West, 
David  Sanford, 
Abraham  Utter, 

Stephen  Harding, 
Ebenezer  Marcy, 
Augustin  Hunt, 

Capt.  Bates, 
David  Brown, 
James  Fledget." 

Blood  having  been  shed  in  the  winter  of  1771,  and  both 
parties  having  fresh  accessions,  the  contest  was  renewed' 
with  redoubled  violence.  Men  were  raised  by  Captain 
Ogden  "  to  reduce  the  Resells  at  Wioming."  In  August, 
1771,  he  "moved  on  to  the  Forks  of  Lahawanak  and 
Wyoming  paths."1  He  captured  the  fort  by  stratagem, 
sent  the  Yankees  to  Easton  jail,  plundered  the  cabins, 
devastated  the  ungathered  crops,  and  intimidated  and 
suppressed  every  sentiment  friendly  to  the  Connecticut 
people  thus  stigmatized  as  rebels. 

In  a  spirit  of  vague  Christianity  he  sent  "a  party  of  six 
men  to  lay  on  the  Sheholey  road  from  Wioming  to  Dela- 
ware, to  prevent  expresses  going  that  way  to  N.  Eng- 
land" 2  after  relief. 

Dr.  Ledlie,  under  date  of  August  16,  1771,  writes  to 
Governor  Hamilton,  that  "  we  were  just  sending  off  Flour 
by  way  of  Lackawanack,  and  that  we  shall  keep  the 
Shehole  and  Minisink  Paths  Guarded  to  prevent  more 
People,  &c.,  coming  to  them."  This  Shehole  path  was 
the  warriors'  trail  up  the  Lackawanna  to  Paupack  and 
the  Delaware. 

When  the  Yankees  again  returned  from  jail,  they  made 
a  temporary  camp-place  above  Pittston.  Here  a  spy, 
"named  Jas.  Bertrong,  was  taken  prisoner  by  a  party 

1  Letter,  John  Van  Campen,  August  16,  1771. 
3  Pennsylvania  Archives,  1771,  p.  429. 


114  HISTORY    OF    THE 

of  Men  at  Lachnwanack,"  who  reported  that  fifty  or  sixty 
men  under  Lazarus  Stewart  and  Zebulon  Butler,  were 
then  defying  the  authorities  of  Pennsylvania. 

While  this  strife  sacrificed  much  of  the  social  relations, 
and  retarded  the  industrious  tendency  of  the  settlement, 
it  was  not  wholly  fatal  to  its  growth. 

The  immediate  head  or  seat  of  the  democratic  colony, 
originally  claimed  and  disputed  for  by  the  settlers  at 
Kings-Town,  was  finally  located  in  Wilkes  Barre,  where, 
in  or  around  the  fort,  the  people  gathered  at  stated  inter- 
vals and  held  council  together  ;  discussed  its  affairs  gen- 
erally, and  settled  abstract  principles  of  public  right  and 
good  relating  to  the  interests  of  Wyoming,  with  a  fairness 
and  freedom  that  harmonized  well  with  the  liberal  charac- 
ter of  the  settlers  from  Connecticut.  The  proceedings  of 
these  meetings,  kept  through  all  the  years  of  peace  and 
war,  until  Connecticut  lost  jurisdiction  over  Westmore- 
land, were  recorded  in  a  written  book  called  the  West- 
moreland Records.1 

Settlers  were  permitted  "to  make  a  pitch"  2  or  settle  in 
none  of  the  up  or  down  river  territory  only  by  the  con- 
sent or  vote  of  the  inhabitants  at  these  meetings  ;  and 
even  then  only  upon  certain  stipulated  conditions. 

"At  a  meeting  of  ye  Inhabitants  of  ye  townships  at 
Wyoming,  in  AVilksbury,  legally  warned  and  held, 
Dec.  7,  1771,  Capt.  Zebulon  Butler  was  chosen  mod- 


1  These  old  records,  which  once  occupied  a  musty  coop  in  Wilkes  Barre,  could 
not  befoun'l  a  few  months  ago,  when  the  writer  sought  for  them  through  a  clever 
and  prominent  official,  are  the  most  curious  literary  fragments  of  antiquity  yet 
remaining  amongst  us.  These  meetings,  which  gave  birth  to  these  Records,  were 
called  "  Ye  meeting  of  yo  proprietors,"  where  nil  had  an  equal  voico  in  the  do- 
liberations.  A '•  moderator,"  and  "clerk"  were  chosen  at  each  meeting.  This 
book  recorded  nil  deods  of  laud,  Ac.,  and  was  commenced  in  1770,  and  terminated 
only  with  the  expulsion  of  Connecticut  jurisdiction  at  Wyoming,  in  1782.  We 
know  of  no  other  ancient  manuscript,  whose  publication  would  link  together  and 
.-iftbrd  more  insight  into  ancient  times  than  the  three  or  four  volumes  of  West- 
moreland Records,  if  they  can  be  exhumed.  The  Historical  Society  of  Wilkes 
Barre,  if  not  able  or  disposed  to  print,  ought  to  be  their  custodian. 

y  The  homes  or  clearings  of  the  settlers  early  took  and  long  retained  this  name. 


LACK  A  WANNA   VALLEY.  115 

erator  for  ye  day,"  it  was  voted  "  that  this  Company 
is  to  take  in  Settlers  on  ye  following  Considerations :  that 
those  that  take  up  a  Settling  Right  in  Lockaworna,  shall 
pay  to  this  Company  Forty  dollars,  and  those  that  take  a 
Bight  in  Wilksbury  or  Plymouth,  shall  pay  Fifty  Dol- 
lors ;  and  those  that  take  a  Right  in  Kingstown,  shall  pay 
Sixty  Dollors,  all  for  ye  use  of  this  Company,  etc."  l  A 
committee  was  also  appointed  to  take  bonds  from  those 
who  should  be  admitted  as  settlers. 

Lackawanna,  or  Lockaworna  as  then  designated,  being 
more  remote  from  the  main  settlement,  protected  by  block- 
houses or  forts,  and  from  its  very  isolation,  up  in  the 
narrow  valley,  more  exposed  to  wild  beasts  and  Indians, 
than  either  Wilkes  Barre  or  Kingston,  although  enjoying 
the  same  federative  government,  was  oifered  to  persons 
whose  courage  overreached  their  means,  upon  terms  ap- 
parently more  advantageous  and  easy.  Of  the  original 
number  of  two  hundred  and  forty,  who  emigrated  to 
Wyoming  in  1769 — all  of  whom  were  male — only  thirty- 
five  were  located  along  the  Lackawanna.  In  regard  to 
these,  who  lived  within  reach  of  the  block-house  at  Pitts- 
ton,  it  was  voted,  April  25,  1772,  by  the  Susquehanna 
Company,  ''that  those  35  men  that  is  now  in  ye  town- 
ship of  Lockoworna,  shall  be  entitled  to  all  ye  Com- 
panyes  Right  to  sd.  township." 

With  a  view  of  imparting  to  the  colony  a  healthy  moral 
stamina,  a  committee  of  five  persons  were  appointed  at 
the  same  meeting,  "to  admit  settlers  into  ye  six  mile 
township.  But  for  no  one  of  the  committee  to  admit  in 
settlers  unless  ye  major  part  of  said  Committee  be  present 
to  admit,"  and  then  to  allow  only  "such  as  good,  whol- 
som  inhabitants"  to  settle.2 

December  17,  1771,  "this  meeting  is  opened  and  held 
by  adjournment,  voted,  that  Joseph  David  Sanford,  Bar- 
nabas Gary,  Elezer  Gary,  jun.,  Arter  French,  John  Fra- 

1  Westmoreland  Records.  *  Ibid. 


11C  HISTORY    OF    THE 

• 

zier,  Timothy  Reine,  jun.,   Stephen   Harden,  and  Caleb 
Bates,  have  each  one  a  Settling  Right  in  ye  township."1 

Not  only  had  morality  its  defenders  and  advocates 
among  the  early  settlers,  but  industry  was  considered 
such  an  essential  qualification  to  the  prosperity  of  the  new 
settlement,  that  at  a  meeting  of  the  inhabitants  held  in 
Wilkes  Barre  Fort,  in  December,  1771,  it  was  voted  "that 
Frank  Phillips  be  admitted  to  Purchoys  a  settling  Right 
in  Lockaworna,  Provided  he  pntsan  Able  Bodyed  man  on 
sd.  Right,  and  Due  Duty  Equal  to  ye  Rest  of  ye  Settlers." 

April  29,  1772,  voted  "that  Samuel  Slougher  is  admit- 
ted in  as  a  Settler,  in  Room  of  Mortin  Nelson,  in  ye  town- 
ship of  Lockoworna,"  and  in  January  13,  1772,  voted 
"that  David  Carr  is  admitted  in  as  a  Settler  in  Locka- 
worna, and  lies  Given  His  Bond  for  Forty  Dollors." 

By  the  old  roadside  in  Pittston  township,  on  the  right 
as  you  descend  the  valley,  about  three  miles  up  from 
Pittston,  could  be  seen  a  few  years  since  the  debris  of  a 
chimney  of  one  of  the  earliest  cabins  of  the  white  man  erect- 
ed in  the  valley  in  1770.  It  was  built  by  Zebulon  Marcy, 
who  emigrated  from  Connecticut  in  the  spring  of  this 
year,  in  the  twenty-sixth  year  of  his  age.  He  was  brother 
of  .Ebenezer,  who  came  into  possession  of  this  rustic  dwell- 
ing some  time  afterward. 

Choosing  this  spot  for  his  residence,  upon  the  warriors' 
path,  from  its  inviting  soil  and  convenient  location,  his 
hut,  formed  from  logs  in  the  stern  simplicity  of  the  times, 
subsequently  became  famous  for  its  genial  hospitality. 

At  the  time  of  the  Wyoming  massacre,  eight  years  after 
locating  here,  Ebenezer  Marcy  was  engaged  with  his  com- 
rades below  in  the  defense  of  Wyoming  from  the  ravages 
of  the  merciless  Indians,  Tories,  and  British,  when  the 
news  that  the  brave  defenders  had  retreated  before  the 
pursuing  and  mongrel  horde,  flew  through  the  settlement 
with  astounding  effect  and  rapidity.  Hurriedly  snatch- 

1  Westmoreland  Records. 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  117 

ing  her  children  from  the  house,  and  securing  a  loaf  of 
bread  for  the  supperless  fugitives,  she  fled  from  the  val- 
ley on  the  evening  of  July  3,  1778,  across  the  mountain 
to  Stroudsburg,  in  company  with  all  her  neighbors  thus 
left  feeble  and  defenseless.  "She  was,"  says  Miner, 
"taken  in  labor  in  the  wilderness.  Having  no  mode  of 
conveyance,  her  sufferings  were  inexpressibly  severe. 
She  was  able  to  drag  her  fainting  footsteps  but  about 
two  miles  that  day.  The  next  day,  being  overtaken  by  a 
neighbor  with  a  horse,  she  rode,  and  in  a  week's  time 
was  more  than  100  miles  with  her  infant  from  the  place 
of  its  birth."  The  child  born  at  this  time,  and  subse- 
quently married  twice,  died  a  short  time  since  in  Wyo- 
ming County. 

Marcy  himself  was  a  man  of  some  local  prominence  in 
his  day,  and  was  chosen  the  first  constable  of  Pittston,  in 
January,  1772. 

Barnabas  Carey,  whose  right  to  settle  in  the  township 
was  voted  in  1771,  pitched  farther  up  the  valley,  where, 
from  the  fallen  tree  and  the  fresh-peeled  bark,  he  fash- 
ioned a  cabin  to  afford  him  protection  from  the  storms  and 
the  wolves.  This  was  the  first  one  erected  by  the  white 
man  above  the  Palls  of  the  Lackawanna,  and  the  honor 
of  the  achievement  belongs  to  Carey.  The  next  year  he 
sold  his  claim  to  "the  eight  meadow  Lott  in  ye  Township 
Lockaworna  to  Jeremiah  Blanchard  for  thirteen  pounds 
and  four  shillings."1 

Constant  Searles  and  John  Phillips  were  among  the 
Yankee  emigrants  who  located  in  the  valley  in  1771. 
Frank  Phillips,  who  was  voted  a  settling  right  in  "Lock- 
aworna" in  December,  1771,  was  the  father  of  John, 
only  fourteen  years  of  age,  and  settled  in  the  "gore," 
or  wedged-like  shape  of  land,  lying  between  Pittston  and 
Providence. 

Six  years  later,  Phillips' s  farm  was  sold  to  his  son, 

1  Westmoreland  Records,  1771. 


118  HISTORY    OF    THE 

John,  for  thirty  pounds,  current  money.  Among  the 
live  commissioners  chosen  to  purchase  land,  whereon  to 
erect  the  necessary  public  buildings,  at  the  time  of  the 
formation  of  Luzerne  County,  in  1780,  was  John  Phillips. 

After  the  Trenton  Decree  authorized  a  re-survey  of  the 
prolonged  disputed  lands  in  the  seventeen  old  certified 
townships,  Pennsylvania  sent  to  AVyoming  "200  flints 
and  2  Boxes  of  cartridges,"  because  the  inhabitants  were 
reported  "wrangling."1  At  this  time  the  Pennsylvania 
soldiers,  excited  and  brutal  with  rum,  and  under  the 
command  of  Captains  Shrawder  and  Christie,  began  to 
lay  open  fields  of  grain  for  common  pasturage,  destroying 
every  thing  belonging  to  the  Yankee  settlers,  while  estab- 
lishing the  boundaries  of  Pennsylvania,  regardless  of 
those  of  Connecticut. 

Phillips  and  his  family  were  among  those  driven  from 
their  farms  in  1784,  in  a  manner  so  graphically  described 
by  Hon.  Charles  Miner  in  his  History  of  Wyoming  : — 

"On  the  13th  and  14th  of  May  the  soldiers  were  sent 
forth,  and  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  with  the  most  high- 
handed arrogance,  dispossessed  one  hundred  and  fifty 
families  ;  in  many  instances  set  fire  to  their  dwellings, 
avowing  the  intention  utterly  to  expel  them  from  the 
country.  Unable  to  make  any  effectual  resistance,  the 
people  implored  for  leave  to  remove  either  up  or  down 
the  river,  as  with  their  wives  and  children,  in  the  state  of 
the  roads,  it  would  be  impossible  to  travel.  A  stern 
refusal  met  this  seemingly  reasonable  request,  and  they 
were  directed  to  take  the  Lackawaxen  road,  as  leading 
most  directly  to  Connecticut.  But  this  way  consisted  of 
sixty  miles  of  wilderness,  with  scarce  a  house  ;  the  roads 
were  wholly  neglected  during  the  war,  and  they  then 
begged  leave  to  take  the  Easton  or  Stroudsburg  route, 
where  bridges  spanned  the  larger  streams,  still  swollen 
by  recent  rains.  All  importunities  were  vain,  and  the 

1  See  Pennsylvania  Archives,  1784. 


LACK  AW  ANN  A    VALLEY.  119 

people  fled  toward  the  Delaware,  objects  of  destitution 
and  pity  that  should  have  moved  a  heart  of  marble. 
About  five  hundred  men,  women,  and  children,  with 
scarce  provisions  to  sustain  life,  plodded  their  weary 
way,  mostly  on  foot,  the  roads  being  impassable  for 
wagons,  mothers  carrying  their  infants,  and  pregnant 
women  literally  wading  the  streams,  the  water  reaching 
to  their  armpits,  and  at  night  slept  on  the  naked  earth, 
the  heavens  their  canopy,  and  scarce  clothes  to  cover 
them.  A  Mr.  John  Gardner  and  John  Jenkins,  both  aged 
men  and  lame,  sought  their  way  on  crutches.  Little 
children,  tired  with  traveling,  crying  to  their  mothers  for 
bread,  which  they  had  not  to  give  them,  sunk  from  ex- 
haustion into  stillness  and  slumber,  while  the  mothers 
could  only  shed  tears  of  sorrow  and  compassion,  till  in 
sleep  they  forgot  their  griefs  and  cares.  Several  of  the 
unfortunate  sufferers  died  in  the  wilderness,  others  were 
taken  sick  from  excessive  fatigue,  and  expired  soon  after 
reaching  the  settlements.  A  widow,  with  a  numerous 
family  of  children,  whose  husband  had  been  slain  in  the 
war,  endured  inexpressible  hardships.  One  child  died, 
and  she  buried  it  as  she  could  beneath  a  hemlock  log, 
probably  to  be  disinterred  from  its  shallow  covering,  and 
be  devoured  by  wolves." 

A  small  mound,  sheltered  by  a  friendly  hemlock,  lies 
by  the  roadside  in  Wayne  County,  where  the  little  one 
was  buried. 

"One  shocking  instance  of  suffering  is  related  by  a 
survivor  of  this  scene  of  death  ;  it  is  the  case  of  a  mother, 
whose  infant  having  died,  roasted  it  by  piecemeal  for  the 
daily  subsistence  of  her  suffering  children." * 

Elisha  Harding,  who  formed  one  of  this  party,  says  that 
"the  first  night  we  encamped  at  the  Capouse,  the  second 
at  Cobbs,  the  third  at  Little  Meadows  (Salem),  cold, 
hungry,  and  drenched  with  rain— the  poor  women  and 

1  Chapman. 


120  HISTORY    OF    THE 

children  suffering  much.  The  fourth  night  at  Lacka- 
waxen,  fifth  at  Bloomington,  sixth  at  Shehola,  and  seventh 
on  the  Delaware,  where  the  people  disbanded — some  going 
up  and  some  down  the  river."' 

Pennsylvania  repudiated  this  ferocious  conduct  of  the 
soldiers,  and  at  once  indignantly  dismissed  the  respective 
companies  engaged  in  proceedings  so  infamous.1 

After  the  Compromising  laws  had  pacified  the  valley. 
Phillips  returned  and  took  possession  of  his  former  farm. 

Timothy  Keys,  Andrew  Hickman,  and  Mr.  Hocksy 
settled  in  Providence  Township  in  1771.  Keys  was 
chosen  constable  of  Providence,  June  30,  1772.  Among 
the  first  five  women  coming  to  Wyoming  was  the  wife  of 
Hickrnan. 

The  Westmoreland  Records  inform  us  that  u  Augustine 
Hunt,  one  of  ye  Proprietors  in  ye  Susquehanna  Purchois 
has  made  a  pitch  of  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  acres  of 
Land  in  Lockaworna  township  in  1772.'' 

John  Taylor,  with  no  companions  but  his  ax,  his  rifle, 
and  his  faithful  dog,  early  made  a  pitch  in  Providence  on 
the  elevation  below  Hyde  Park,  affording  such  views  of 
village  and  valley,  and  known  throughout  the  valley  as 
the  "uncle  Jo.  Griffin  farm."  Mr.  Taylor  subsequently 
became  a  man  of  more  than  ordinary  usefulness  in  the 
colony.  He  was  a  prominent  member  of  a  number  of 
committees,  which  received  their  existence  with  the  ex- 
pansion of  the  settlement,  and  he  took  an  active  part  in 
the  social  and  political  organizations  of  the  day. 

Pitts-town,  which  was  named  in  honor  of  the  distin- 
guished advocate  and  defender  of  American  interest,  Wm. 
Pitt,  as  was  Wilkes-Barre  from  the  united  names  of  two 
bold  and  eloquent  champions  of  American  rights  in  the 
British  Parliament,  was  one  of  the  original  townships  laid 
out  by  the  Proprietors  of  the  Susquehanna  Company, 
and  extended  from  Wilkes  Barre  to  Providence. 

1  Miner. 


LACK  A  WANNA    VALLEY.  121 

Among  the  early  families  here,  were  the  Browns, 
Bennetts,  Benedicts,  Blanchards,  Careys,  St. .  Johns, 
Marcys,  Sawyers,  and  Silbeys.  One  of  the  Pittston  forts 
being  erected  on  the  farm  of  Brown,  was  named  in  honor 
of  him,  and  was  at  the  time  of  the  Wyoming  massacre 
occupied  by  a  small  company  of  men  commanded  by 
Captain  Blanchard. 

This  block-house  was  built  in  1772.  At  a  meeting  of 
the  proprietors  and  settlers  held  in  Wilkes  Barre,  May 
20,  1772,  it  was  voted  "that  ye  Proprietors  Belonging  to 
ye  town  of  Pittston  Have  ye  Liberty  to  Gft  into  their 
town,  and  there  to  fortyfie  and  Keep  in  a  Body  Near 
together  and  Gourd  by  themselves  until  further  notice 
from  this  Committee."  1 

Samuel  Harden  was  chosen  collector  for  Pittston,  and 
Solomon  Johnson  "for  ye  town  of  Providence,"  in 
December,  1772. 

Meadow  lot,  No.  13,  in  Lockawarna,  was  sold  to  Jere- 
miah Blanchard,  in  May,  1772,  by  Dr.  Joseph  Sprauge, 
one  of  the  proprietors  of  the  town,  and  the  first  physician 
who  practiced  medicine  in  the  valley. 

John  Stevens  was  a  proprietor  in  "ye  township  called 
ye  Capouse  Meadow."  In  May,  1772,  he  conveyed  to 
John  Youngs  a  settling  right  at  Capouse  Meadow,  merely 
for  the  "consideration  of  ye  Love,  Good  will  and 
affections  I  Have  &  Do  Bare  towards  my  Loving  Son 
in  Law,  John  youngs,  son  to  my  wife  Mary."2 

ISAAC  TRIPP. 

At  Capoose  Meadow,  where  the  rude  bearing  of 
Indian  life  had  been  modified  by  whites  friendly  in 
their  intercourse  and  gaudy  with  their  presents,  acres 
of  rich  woodlands  had  been  surveyed  and  purchased 
for  a  few  shillings  in  Connecticut  currency,  but  no  one 

1  Westmoreland  Records.  a  Ibid. 


122  HISTORY    OF    THE 

was  willing  to  encounter  its  dangers  or  share  attractions 
until  Isaac  Tripp,  a  man  of  five  and  thirty,  built  for  him- 
self a  shelter  among  the  pines  in  1771. 

Emigrating  to  the  broader  plains  of  Wyoming  with  the 
original  pioneers  of  17C9,  and,  finding  the  block-house  at 
Mill  Creek  in  possession  of  the  Pennymites,  prepared, 
with  a  body  of  men  commanded  by  Capt.  Ogden,  to  dis- 
pute and  enforce  jurisdiction  over  the  valley,  Tripp  and 
his  companions,  looking  for  no  such  chilly  reception  even 
amid  the  snows  of  winter,  made  preparations  to  recapture 
a  prize  of  «uch  vital  importance  to  their  existence  as  a 
part  of  a  company  or  colony.  "Isaak  Tryp,"  was  one 
of  the  Proprietors  of  the  Susqehanna  Company.  He  had 
seen  some  service  in  the  French  and  Indian  wars  previous 
to  this,  while  a  few  of  his  companions  had  been  schooled 
in  the  raw  exercises  of  the  militia  of  Connecticut.  All, 
however,  who  had  adventured  thus  far  into  Wyoming, 
yet  filled  with  the  sullen  redskins,  were  familiar  with  the 
use  of  the  rifle,  never  failing  in  the  hands  of  the  woods- 
man, robust  and  self  reliant,  versed  in  the  achievement 
of  hook  and  line,  and  more  skilled  in  securing  the  deer 
and  tracking  the  bear,  than  in  the  more  deceptive  art  of 
diplomatic  cunning. 

With  all  their  conceptions,  however,  of  military  disci- 
pline learned  in  the  warfare  of  border  life  or  practiced  in 
the  parks  of  their  native  inland  villages,  they  were  now 
completely  outwitted  by  the  superior  tact  of  the  Ogden 
party  secure  in  the  occupancy  of  the  block-house.  Ogden, 
says  Miner  "  having  only  ten  men  able  to  bear  arms,  one- 
fourth  only  of  his  invading  foe, determined  to  have  recourse 
to  negotiation.  A  very  polite  and  conciliatory  note  was 
addressed  to  the  commander  of  the  fort)/,  an  interview 
respectfully  solicited,  and  a  friendly  conference  asked  on 
the  subject  of  the  respective  titles.  Ogden  proved  him- 
self an  accomplished  angler.  The  bait  was  too  tempting. 
Propose  to  a  Yankee  to  talk  over  a  matter  especially 
which  he  has  studied,  and  believes  to  be  right,  and  you 


LACK  AW  ANN  A     VALLEY.  123 

touch  the  most  susceptible  chord  that  vibrates  in  his 
heart.  That  they  could  out-talk  the  Pennymites,  and  con- 
vince them  the  Susquehanna  title  was  good,  not  one  of 
the  forty  doubted.  Three  of  the  chief  men  were  deputed 
to  argue  the  matter,  viz. :  Isaac  Tripp  and  Benjamin 
Follet,  two  of  the  executive  committee,  accompanied  by 
Mr.  Vine  Elderkin.  No  sooner  were  they  within  the 
block-house,  than  Sheriff  Jenkins  clapped  a  writ  on  their 
shoulders. — 'Gentlemen,  in  the  name  of  the  Common- 
wealth of  Pennsylvania,  you  are  my  prisoners  !'  '  Laugh 
when  we  must,  be  candid  when  we  can.'  The  Yankees 
were  decidedly  outwitted.  By  common  consent  the  pris- 
oners were  transported  to  Easton  jail,  guarded  by  Captain 
Ogden  ;  but  accompanied  in  no  hostile  manner,  by  the 
thirty-seven  remnants  of  the  forty." 

Tripp  was  promptly  liberated  from  jail  by  his  friends, 
and  returning  again  to  the  valley,  was  an  efficient  contrib- 
utor to  the  public  weal,  and  an  intelligent  actor  in  the 
long,  embittered  dispute  between  the  Provincial  authori- 
ties of  Pennsylvania  and  those  of  the  Colony  of  Con- 
necticut for  Wyoming,  before  its  peaceful  and  final 
solution. 

Upon  the  Westmoreland  Records  his  name,  or  that  of 
"Esq.  Tripp,"  as  he  was  familiarly  called,  often  appears. 
At  a  meeting  of  the  Susquehanna  Company,  held  at 
Hartford,  Ct.,  June  2,  1773,  for  the  purpose  of  electing 
officers  for  the  Westmoreland  Colony,  Gideon  Baldwin, 
Timothy  Keys,  and  Isaac  Tripp,  were  chosen  Directors 
or  Proprietors  of  Providence. 

The  first  recorded  purchase  of  land  in  Providence  by 
Tripp  was  made  in  1774.  This  purchase  embraced  lands 
where  stood  the  wigwams  of  Capoose,  upon  the  flats  sub- 
sequently known  as  "  Tripp' s  Flats."  As  this  old  deed 
possesses  some  local  interest  it  is  inserted  entire. 

"  To  all  People  to  whom  these  Presents  shall  come. 
Know  ye  that  I  Daniel  Adams  of  west-moreland,  in  ye 


124:  HISTORY    OF    THE 

County  of  Litchfield  and  Colony  of  Connecticut!,  in  New 
England,  for  and  in  Consideration  of  Ninety  pounds  Cur- 
rant money,  of  Connecticutt,  to  me  in  hand,  Paid  Before 
ye  Ensealing  hereof  to  my  full  satisfaction  by  Isooc  Tripp, 
Esq.,  of  ye  same  town,  County,  and  Colony,  aforesaid,  ye 
Receipt  whereof  I  am  fully  sattisfyed  and  contented  and 
Bo  therefore  freely,  fully,  and  absolutely  Give,  Grant, 
Bargain,  Sell,  alienate,  Convay,  and  Confirm  unto  him,  ye 
aaid  Isooc  Trypp,  His  Hairs,  Exec  ors.  Admin  ors.  and  as- 
siglms,  for  Ever  all  and  singular  one  Certain  Lott  of  land, 
Lying  and  Being  in  ye  township  of  Providence,  Known 
by  No.  14,  Lying  on  the  west  side  of  Lockawarna  River, 
and  Butted  and  Bounded  as  follows  :  abuting  East  on  sd. 
River  ;  west  on  sd.  town  Line,  North  and  South  on  Land 
Belonging  to  sd.  Tripp,  and  Contains  by  Estimation  375 
acres,  be  ye  same  more  or  Less,  Reference  being  had  to 
ye  Survay  of  sd.  town  for  ye  more  perticulerments.  Bounds 
thereof  to  be  and  Remain  unto  him  ye  sd.  Isooc  tripp,  and 
to  his  heirs,  Execu — ors,  or  Admin — ors,  or  assigns  for 
Ever  free  and  clear  from  me,  ye  sd.  Daniel  Adams,  or  any 
Heirs,  Execu — ors,  or  Admin — ors,  or  assigns,  or  any 
other  Persons  by  from  or  under  me  or  any  part  thereof,  as 
witness,  my  hand  this  7th  Day  of  July,  in  ye  year  of  our 
Lord,  1774,  and  in  ye  14th  year  of  his  majosties  Raign. 

"Signed,  sealed,  and  Delivered  In  Presence  of 

DANL.  ADAMS. 
"NATHAN.  DENJSON  AND 
"SAML.  SLATEK,  JK. 

"Received  ye  above  Deed  to  Record  July  ye  8th,  A.  D. 
1774,  and  Recorded  By  me. 

"EzKKiKL  PEIKCE,  clerk."1 

At  the  time  that  Tripp  located  upon  the  Indian  clearing 
already  awaiting  culture,  Providence  was  designated  in 
the  ancient  records  as  the  "sixth  town  of  ye  Capouse 
Meadows." 

'Westmoreland  Records,  1774. 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  127 

These  once  beautiful  flats,  now  rooted  into  mines,  and 
robbed  of  their  natural  beauty  by  tall  coal  work,  with 
their  accompanying  culm  or  waste  coal  spread  over  many 
a  fair  acre,  perpetuate  the  names  of  their  first  white  oc- 
cupants, and  bring  them  down  through  generations  into 
the  hands  of  Ira  Tripp,  Esq.,  a  gentleman  of  wealth,  en- 
titled to  no  little  consideration  for  those  frank,  popular 
attainments  and  social  qualifications  which  mark,  in  the 
public  mind,  the  rulings  of  the  hour. 

The  Scranton  court-house,  standing  on  the  original 
farm  of  Ira  Tripp,  overlooks  the  ancient  abode  of  Capoose, 
pointed  out  by  a  single  tree. 

Isaac  Tripp,  the  grandson  of  Isaac  Tripp,  Sen.,  came 
into  the  valley  in  1774,  and  chose  this  inviting  spot  for 
his  residence.1 

In  October,  1773,  Maj.  Fitch  Alden  purchased  of  John 
Stevens,  of  Wilkes  Barre  "one  Certain  Lott  of  Land  Ly- 
ing in  ye  township  of  Providence,  on  ye  North  side  of 
Lockaworna  River ;  sd.  Lott  is  known  by  Number  two 
and  Contains  370  acres."  Fifteen  pounds  lawful  cur- 
rency was  the  price  given — about  $45. 

Provisions  were  so  scarce  in  all  the  settlements,  from 


1  The  following  note,  regarding  Isaac  Tripp,  appears  in  the  History  of  the 
Abington  Baptist  Association,  a  small  volume,  compiled  a  few  years  since  by  Rev. 
Edward  L.  Baily,  A.M.:  "This  Isaac  Tripp  was  in  early  life  a  resident  at 
'  Capouse  Meadows,'  in  the  Lackawanna  valley.  In  the  eighteenth  year  of  his 
age,  and  soon  after  the  Wyoming  massacre,  he  was  taken  captive  by  the  Indians, 
and  with  others  marched  to  Canada.  On  the  way  he  experienced  the  most  ex- 
cruciating sufferings  from  the  gnawings  of  hunger  and  cruel  treatment  of  the 
savages,  who  bound  his  hands  behind  him  and  compelled  him  to  run  the  gauntlet. 
At  Niagara  he  met  his  cousin,  Miss  Frances  Slocum,  who  was  also  a  captive  from 
the  Wyoming  valley.  They  planned  their  escape,  but  their  intentions  being  dis- 
covered by  their  captors,  they  were  separated,  never  more  to  meet  on  earth,  and 
young  Tripp  was  sold  to  the  English  and  compelled  to  enter  their  service,  in  wliich 
he  reluctantly  continued  until  the  close  of  the  revolutionary  war.  He  now  re- 
turned to  his  early  home  and  resumed  the  peaceful  pursuits  of  the  farm.  He 
moved  to  Scott,  Luzerne  county,  and  finally  settled  in  the  Elkwoods,  in  Susque- 
hanua  county.  His  wife  died  in  Clifford,  May  10th,  1816,  aged  67  years.  He  fol- 
lowed her  to  the  grave  April  15th,  1820,  aged  60  years.  The  remains  of  both  now 
repose  in  the  burying  ground  near  Clifford  corners." 


128  HISTORY   OF   THE 

Wyoming  to  Capoose,  in  the  winter  of  1773,  that  a  party 
of  persons,  among  whom  was  John  Carey,  were  sent  to 
Stroudsburg  to  obtain  them.  The  distance  was  fifty 
miles  through  the  forest,  where  all  the  intervening  streams, 
being  unbridged,  had  to  be  crossed  upon  ice,  or  forded, 
or  swam.  The  party  went  the  entire  journey  on  foot,  and 
returned  to  their  half- famished  friends  with  the  needed 
flour. 

Neither  Fitch,  Youngs,  nor  Stevens  made  any  improve- 
ment on  their  lands,  still  unchopped  and  unoccupied  in 
1773.  Fitch  sold  his  purchase  in  1774  to  John  Alden  for 
eighty  pounds,  New  York  currency.  It  must  be  borne 
in  mind  that,  after  the  original  survey  of  the  Connecticut 
Indian  Purchase  of  the  Susquehanna  Company,  all  the 
land  thus  embraced  was  laid  out  in  shares  and  half  shares, 
many  of  which  lay  for  years  beyond  the  sound  of  the 
ax-stroke,  while  others,  more  favorably  located,  were 
sold  by  the  proprietors  of  each  town  for  a  trifle,  and  re- 
sold by  the  purchaser  to  any  one  having  the  courage  to 
risk  life  or  sacrifice  any  social  relation  among  panthers, 
Indians,  and  wolves. 

Isaac  Tripp,  the  grandson  of  Isaac  Tripp  the  elder,  was 
"taken  prisoner  in  1778,  and  two  young  men  by  the  name 
of  Keys  and  Hocksey ;  the  old  gentleman  they  (the  In- 
dians) painted  and  dismissed,  but  hurried  the  others  into 
the  forest  (now  Abington)  above  Liggitt's  Gap,  on  the 
warriors'  path  to  Oquago.  Resting  one  night,  they  rose 
the  next  morning,  traveled  about  two  miles,  when  they 
stopped  at  a  little  stream  of  water.  The  two  young  In- 
dians then  took  Keys  and  Hocksey  some  distance  from 
the  path,  and  were  absent  half  an  hour,  the  old  Indian 
looking  anxiously  the  way  they  had  gone.  Presently 
the  death-whoop  was  heard,  and  the  Indians  returned, 
brandishing  bloody  tomahawks  and  exhibiting  the  scalps 
of  their  victims.  Tripp' s  hat  was  taken  from  his  head, 
and  his  scalp  examined  twice,  the  savages  speaking 
earnestly,  when  at  length  they  told  him  to  fear  noth- 


LACKA WANNA   VALLEY.  129 

ing — he  should  not  be  hurt ;  and  carried  him  off  pris- 
oner." l 

The  Indians,  finding  Tripp  disposed  to  yield  gracefully 
to  his  new  position  without  concern  or  restraint,  painted 
his  face  with  war-paint,  as  a  protective  measure  against 
any  warriors  chancing  to  meet  him,  and  sent  him  back  to 
his  home,  at  Capoose,  where  the  next  year  he  was  shot 
by  a  party  of  savages  from  the  lakes,  while  at  work 
in  the  field,  unconscious  of  danger. 

In  the  spring  of  1803  two  skulls,  white  as  snow,  and 
some  human  bones,  porous  and  weather-beaten  by  the 
storms  of  quarter  of  a  century,  were  found  in  Abington, 
by  Deacon  Clark,  upon  the  edge  of  a  little  brook  passing 
through  Clark's  Greeny  and  were  at  this  time  supposed  to 
be,  as  they  probably  were,  the  remains  of  Tripp' s  toma- 
hawked companions. 

Isaac  Tripp,  Sen.,  was  shot  near  Wilkes  Barre  Fort,  in 
1779,  under  the  following  circumstances :  In  the  Revolu- 
tionary War,  the  British,  for  the  purpose  of  inciting  the 
savages  to  more  murderous  activity  along  the  frontier  and 
exposed  settlements,  offered  large  rewards  for  the  scalps 
of  Americans.  As  Tripp  was  a  man  of  more  than  ordinary 
efficiency  and  prominence  in  the  colony,  the  Indians  were 
often  asked  by  the  British  why  he  was  not  slain.  The 
unvarying  answer  was  that  "Tripp  was  a  good  man." 
He  was  a  Quaker  in  his  religious  notions,  and  in  all  his 
intercourse  with  the  Indians  his  manner  had  been  so  kind 
and  conciliatory,  that  when  he  fell  into  their  hands  as  a 
prisoner  the  year  previous,  at  Capoose,  they  dismissed 
him  unharmed,  and  covered  him  with  paint,  as  it  was 
their  custom  to  do  with  those  they  did  not  wish  to  harm. 

Rendering  himself  inimical  to  the  Tories  by  the  energy 
with  which  he  assailed  them  afterward  in  his  efforts  to 
protect  the  interests  of  the  Wyoming  Colony  at  Hartford, 
whither  he  had  been  sent  to  represent  its  grievances,  a 

1  Miner's  History,  p.  240. 


130  HISTORY    OF    THE 

double  reward  was  offered  for  his  scalp,  and,  as  he  had 
forfeited  their  protection  by  the  removal  of  the  war-paint, 
and  incurred  their  hostility  by  his  loyal  struggles  for  the 
life  of  the  Republic,  he  was  shot  and  scalped  the  first  time 
he  was  seen. 

WESTMORELAND. 

Up  until  this  time  (1774)  the  Susquehanna  Company, 
struggling  against  every  element  adverse  to  its  existence, 
had  hoped  that  Wyoming  might,  by  special  authority  from 
the  king,  be  erected  into  a  separate  colony  of  its  own,  but 
the  remonstrances  of  the  Proprietary  Government,  inflexi- 
ble in  its  purpose  to  expel  all  power  and  people  from  the 
valley  but  its  own,  combined  withthe  war-feeling  every- 
where generated  and  cherished  throughout  the  American 
Colonies  against  the  British  Government,  easily  defeated 
a  measure  fraught  with  equal  consequence  to  botli  of  the 
contending  parties. 

Under  these  circum stances,  Connecticut,  not  forgetting 
that,  by  virtue  of  its  charter,  its  possessions  extended  in- 
definitely to  the  West — even  to  the  Pacific — yielded  to  the 
appeals  repeatedly  coming  over  the  mountain  from  Wyo- 
ming, to  extend  official  and  parental  protection  to  the  set- 
tlement, assailed  from  within  and  without,  passed  through 
its  General  Assembly,  in  January,  1774,  the  following 
act:— 

"It  is  enacted  that  the  Inhabitants  dwelling  within  the 
Bounds  of  this  Colony,  on  the  West  Side  of  the  River  Del- 
aware, be,  and  they  are  hereby  made  and  constituted  a 
distinct  Town,  with  like  Powers  and  Priviledges  as  other 
Towns  in  this  Colony  by  Law  have,  within  the  following 
Bounds  and  Limits,  viz1- :  Bounded  East  by  Delaware  Riv- 
er, North  by  the  North  Line  of  this  Colony,  West  by  a  North 
and  South  Line  across  the  Colony  at  fifteen  miles  distan  e 
from  a  Place  on  Susquehanna  River  called  Wyoming,  and 
South  by  the  South  Line  of  the  Colony,  which  Town  is 
hereby  annexed  to  the  County  of  Litchfield,  and  shall  be 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  131 

called  by  the  name  of  Westmoreland :  That  Zebulon  But- 
ler and  Nathan  Dehison,  Esquires,  Inhabitants  of  said 
Town,  are  appointed  Justices  of  the  Peace  in  and  for  the 
County  of  Litchfield ;  That  the  former  is  authorized  and 
directed  to  issue  a  Warrant,  as  soon  as  may  be,  to  notify 
the  Inhabitants  of  the  said  Town  of  Westmoreland  in  said 
County,  to  meet  at  such  Time  and  Place  as  he  shall  ap- 
point, within  said  Town,  to  choose  officers,  and  to  do  any 
other  Business  proper  to  be  done  at  said  Meeting  ;  and 

"That  the  Governor  of  this  Colony  is  authorized  and 
desired  to  issue  a  Proclamation,  forbidding  any  Person  or 
Persons  whatsoever  taking  up,  entring  on,  or  settling  any 
of  the  Lands  contained  or  included  in  the  Charter  of  this 
Colony,  lying  Westward  of  the  Province  of  New  York, 
without  Liberty  first  had  and  obtained  from  the  General 
Assembly  of  this  Colony. 

"These  Acts  are  made  and  passed  by  our  Assembly, 
for  the  Protection  and  Government  of  the  Inhabitants 
on  the  Lands  mentioned,  to  preserve  Peace  and  good 
Order  among  them,  to  prevent  Hostilities,  Animosities,  and 
Contentions  among  the  People  there,  to  promote  public 
Justice,  to  discourage  Vice  and  Iniquity,  and  to  put  a 
Stop  to  Intruders  entering  on  those  Lands. 

"  I  am,  with  great  Truth  and  Kegard,  Sir, 
"Your  most  Obedient, 

"Humble  Servant, 

"JON™-   TRUMBULL. 

"Honorable  JOHN  PENN,  Esquire."1 

This  act  on  the  part  of  Connecticut  gave  a  fresh  impetus 
and  marked  out  a  new  era  for  the  inland  settlements. 
Wyoming,  thus  ceasing  to  exist  as  a  distinct  republic,9  ac- 
knowledged only  the  laws  and  jurisdiction  of  Connecticut. 
The  inhabitants  of  the  valleys,  always  favoring  peace  and 
good  order,  naturally  expressed  a  hope  that  their  griev- 
ances, hitherto  vexatious  and  fatal  to  their  thrift,  might  be 

1  Col.  Rec ,  vol.  i.;  pp.  151-2.  a  Chapman. 


132  HISTORY    OF    TDK 

lessened  somewhat,  if  not  entirely  removed,  "by  this  affilia- 
tion. The  Revolution,  however,  gave  a  different  and  more 
patriotic  direction  to  the  spirit  of  independence  early  in- 
herited:  else  these  intrepid  sons,  wielding  alike  the  ax 
and  the  musket  in  either  hand,  would  not  have  battled  so 
long  in  vain  for  rights  so  stoutly  upheld  and  denied  them. 

WALLENPAIJPACK   SETTLEMENT. 

One  of  the  most  sluggish  streams  gathering  its  waters 
from  the  roof  of  the  mountain  dividing  the  Delaware  and 
the  Susquehanna,  is  the  Wallenpaupack  in  Pike  County, 
some  thirty  miles  eastward  of  the  Lackawanna,  crossed 
by  the  solitary  Indian  path  leading  from  the  Delaware  to 
Wyoming.  Along  this  creek,  the  first  permanent  settle- 
ment began  in  1774,  and  although  miles  of  forest  and 
mountain  intervened,  the  earliest  settlers,  for  many  years, 
traveled  over  forty  miles  to  Wilkes  Barre,  to  election, 
court,  and  public  meetings  of  great  importance.  "Some 
time  between  the  years  1750  and  1760,"  says  Hon.  War- 
ren J.  Woodward,  Esq.,  in  Miner' s  History  of  Wyoming, 
"  a  family  named  Carter  settled  upon  the  Wallenpaupack 
Creek.  Tin's  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  first  white  fam- 
ily that  ever  visited  the  neighborhood.  The  spot  upon 
which  the  house  was  built  is  in  view  of  the  road  leading 
from  Sterling,  in  Wayne  County,  to  the  Milford  and 
Owego  turnpike,  seven  miles  southwest  from  Wilsonville. 
The  old  Indian  path,  from  Cochecton  to  Wyoming,  crossed 
the  Wallenpaupack  about  thirty  rods  below  the  house  of 
the  Carters.  During  the  French  and  Indian  war,  which 
commenced  in  17i)6,  the  members  of  the  family  were  all 
murdered,  and  the  house  was  burned  by  a  tribe  of  Indians 
in  the  service  of  the  French.  When  the  emigrants  from 
Connecticut  arrived  on  the  banks  of  the  Wallenpaupack, 
the  chimney  of  the  house  and  a  stone  oven  alone  were 
standing. 

"When  the  first  Wyoming  emigrants  from  Connecticut 


LACK  AW  ANNA    VALLEY.  133 

reached  the  Wallenpaupack,  the  main  body  halted,  and 
some  pioneers  were  sent  forward,  in  a  westerly  direction, 
to  procure  intelligence  of  the  position  of  the  country  on 
the  Susquehanna.  The  pioneers  followed  the  Indian  path 
before  alluded  to,  leading  from  Cochecton  in  New  York, 
across  the  Leckawaxen,  to  the  point  on  the  Wallenpau- 
pack below  the  Carter  house,  where  there  was  an  '  Indian 
clearing,'  and  thence  to  the  'Indian  clearings'  on  the 
Susquehanna.  This  path  crossed  'Cobb's  Mountain/ 
The  pioneers  attained  the  summit,  from  which  the  Sus- 
quehanna  was  in  view,  in  the  evening,  and  built  up  a 
large  fire  to  indicate  to  the  settlers  the  point  to  which 
they  should  direct  their  course.  The  next  morning,  the 
emigrants  commenced  their  journey,  building  their  road 
as  they  proceeded.  That  road,  leaving  the  Sterling  road 
before  mentioned  about  a  mile  down  the  creek  below  the 
site  of  the  Carter  house,  is  the  one  which  is  now  con- 
stantly traveled  between  Wilkes  Barre  and  Milford.  It 
is  said  to  have  been  most  judiciously  located.  The  point 
on  which  the  fire  was  built  on  Cobb's  Mountain,  was 
near  the  present  residence  'of  John  Cobb,  Esq.,  and  is 
pointed  out  by  the  people  residing  on  the  Wallenpaupack 
to  the  present  time. 

"At  some  period,  shortly  before  the  Revolutionary  War, 
a  settlement  was  commenced  at  Milford,  on  the  Delaware, 
now  the  capital  of  Pike  County.  The  settlers  were  all 
Pennsylvanians.  This  was  the  only  inhabited  part  of 
what  now  constitutes  Wayne  and  Pike  counties,  except 
the  Connecticut  colony  planted  on  the  Wallenpaupack. 
The  emigrants  to  the  latter  left  Connecticut  in  1774. 
Within  a  year  after  their  arrival,  two  townships  were 
erected  under  the  names  of  Lackaway  and  Bozrali.  The 
settlement  extended  four  miles  and  a  half  along  the  creek. 
The  farms  still  remain  of  the  same  size  as  originally  fixed, 
and  with  two  exceptions  they  still  remain  in  the  possession 
of  the  descendants  of  the  settlers  in  1774. 

"  One  of  the  first  labors  of  the  settlers  after  their  emigra- 


134  HISTORY    OF    THE 

tion,  was  the  erection  of  a  fort.  This  fort,  which  was 
probably  somewhat  primitive  in  its  construction,  was  a 
field  containing  about  an  acre,  surrounded  by  a  trench, 
into  which  upright  pieces  of  hewed  timber  were  iirmly 
fixed.  The  spot  was  selected  from  the  circumstance  of 
its  containing  a  living  spring.  The  fort  was  erected  on 
the  eastern  side  of  the  Sterling  road,  almost  immediately 
opposite  the  point  where  the  road  leading  through  Salem, 
over  Cobb's  Mountain,  and  along  the  Lacka wanna  to  the 
Wyoming  settlements,  called  the  'Old  Wyoming  road,' 
branches  off  from  the  Sterling  road.  It  is  six  miles  south- 
west from  the  hamlet  now  marked  on  the  maps  as  Wilson- 
ville.  Within  the  inclosed  space  was  a  block-house,  also 
built  of  squared  pieces  of  hewed  timber,  upon  the  top  of 
which  was  a  sentry-box,  made  bullet-proof.  There  was, 
besides,  a  guard-house,  standing  just  east  of  the  block- 
house. The  defenses  were  so  constructed  that  a  ritle-  ball 
fired  from  the  high  ground  on  the  east  into  the  fort,  "would 
strike  the  palisades  on  the  opposite  side  above  a  man's 
head.  After  the  rumors  of  the  Indian  troubles  on  the 
Susquehanna  reached  the  Wallenpaupack,  the  settlers 
constantly  spent  the  night  in  the  fort.  The  spring,  whose 
existence  and  situation  governed  the  colonists  in  their 
selection  of  a  stronghold,  still  bubbles  by  the  way-side, 
and  nothing  but  a  pile  of  loose  stones  indicates  to  the 
traveler  the  formidable  neighborhood  to  which  it  has  been 
exposed." 

JAMES   LEGGETT. 

The  loose-tongued  tributary  of  the  Laekawanna  com- 
ing with  shout  and  foam  through  the  deep  notch  in  the 
mountain  between  Abington  and  Providence,  two  miles 
north  of  Scranton,  known  as  "Leggett's  Creek,"  derived 
its  name  from  James  Leggett  who  emigrated  from  "ye 
Province  of  New  York,"  in  1775,  and  erected  his  rude 
bark  cabin  at  the  mouth  of  the  creek,  still  bearing  his 
name.  In  the  original  draught  of  the  township  of 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY. 

Providence  by  the  Connecticut  Susquehanna  Company 
the  wild  land  where  Leggett  cleared,  had  been  allotted 
to  Abraham  Stanton.  This  was  in  1772.  In  1773  he 
transferred  his  right  to  John  Staples.  By  a  vote  of  the 
Susquehanna  Company,  Staples' s  claim  to  this  forest- 
covered  part  of  the  township,  was  declared  forfeited  be- 
cause of  some  dereliction  of  duty.  It  was  next  granted 
to  David  Thayer  in  1774.  Like  preceding  owners,  neither 
of  whom  had  cut  a  tree  or  cleared  a  foot  of  land,  he 
escaped  from  ownership  without  becoming  either  richer 
or  poorer  by  selling  this  and  several  tracts  of  land  along 
upper  Capoose  to  James  Leggett  in  June,  1775,  who  was 
the  first  white  man  to  make  a  clearing  above  Providence 
Village. 

A  little  distance  above  the  grist-mill  of  the  late  Judson 
Clark,  Esq.,  in  Providence,  Leggett  cleared  a  small  spot 
to  show  the  fertility  of  the  soil,  where  he  built  his  cabin 
on  the  bank  of  the  creek  in  1 775  ;  but  the  exciting  aspect 
of  border  life,  often  rendered  appalling  by  the  howl  of 
the  wolf,  or  the  whoop  of  the  red-man  reluctant  to  depart 
from  a  valley  he  had  loved  and  lost,  contributed  so  little 
to  charm  the  solitude  of  his  domestic  life,  that  he  aban- 
doned his  stumpy  new  land  and  retired  to  White  Plains, 
New  York. 

After  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  struggle,  in  which 
he  took  an  honorable  part,  he  returned  to  his  clearing 
in  Providence,  and  erected  upon  this  creek  the  first  saw- 
mill clattering  in  this  portion  of  the  Lacka wanna. 

Benjamin  Baily  purchased  a  lot  from  Solomon  Strong, 
below  that  of  Leggett' s,  in  1775,  selling  it  again  the  next 
year  to  Mr.  Tripp  "  for  a  few  furs  and  a  flint  gun."1  In 
1777,  Mathew  Dalson  bought  375  acres  of  land  on  "ye 
Capous  River  so  called,"  bounded  on  the  north  by 
"Lands  belonging  to  one  Loggit"2  This  purchase  in- 
cluded lands  now  known  as  "  Uncle  Josh  Griffin's  farm." 

1  Westmoreland  Records,  1777.-  *  Ibia. 


136  HISTORY    OF    THE 

While  the  pioneers  up  the  Lackawanua  were  thus  one 
by  one  stretching  the  boundaries  of  the  settlement  with 
vigorous  stroke  and  handspike,  Wyoming,  feverish  with 
the  sanguinary  and  intermitting  character  of  the  contest 
alternating  now  with  success  and  then  with  the  expulsion 
of  one  party  or  the  other,  received  from  the  young,  but 
giant  American  Congress,  the  following  resolution,  dated 
in  Congress,  Dec.  20,  1775  :— 

"Whereas,  a  Dispute  Subsists  between  some  of  the  In- 
habitants of  the  Colon}7  of  Connecticut,  Settled  under  the 
Claim  of  the  Said  Colony  on  the  Lands  near  Wioming,  on 
the  Susquehannah  Iliver,  and  in  the  Delaware  Country, 
and  the  Inhabitants  Settled  under  the  Claim  of  the  pro- 
prietaries of  Pennsylvania,  which  Dispute  it  is  appre- 
hended will,  if  not  Suspended  during  the  present  Troubles 
in  these  Colonies,  be  productive  of  pernicious  Conse- 
quences which  may  be  very  prejudicial  to  the  common 
Interest  of  the  united  Colonies — therefore, 

"  Resolved,  That  is  the  Opinion  of  this  Congress,  and  it 
is  accordingly  recommended  that  the  contending  parties 
immediately  cease  all  Hostilities  and  avoid  every  Appear- 
ance of  Force  untill  the  Dispute  can  be  legally  decided  : 
that  all  property  taken  and  detained  be  restored  to  the 
original  Owners,  that  no  Interruption  be  given  by  either 
party  to  the  free  passing  and  repassing  of  persons  behav- 
ing themselves  peaceably  through  said  disputed  Terri- 
tory, as  well  by  land  as  Water,  without  Molestation,  either 
of  person  or  property ;  that  all  persons  seized  on  and 
detained  on  Account  of  said  Dispute,  be  dismissed,  and 
permitted  to  go  to  their  Respective  Homes,  and  that  all 
things  being  put  in  the  Situation  they  were  before  the 
late  unhappy  Contest,  they  continue  to  behave  themselves 
peaceably  on  their  respective  possessions  and  Improve- 
ments untill  a  legal  Decison  can  be  had  on  said  Dispute, 
or  this  Congress  shall  take  further  Order  thereon.  And 
nothing  herein  done  shall  be  construed  in  prejudice  of 
the  Claims  of  either  party. 


LACK  A  WANNA    VALLEY.  137 

"December  21st. 

"Ordered,  that  an  authentic  Copy  of  the  Resolution 
passed  yesterday,  relative  to  the  Dispute  "between  the 
people  of  Connecticut  and  Pennsylvania  be  transmitted 
to  the  contending  parties. 

11  Extract  from  the  Minutes. 

"  CHAS.  THOMSON,  SecV l 

s 

This  resolution,  by  its  temporary  suspension  of  the 
authority  of  the  land-jobbers  of  Pennsylvania,  gave 
partial  repose  to  Wyoming  and  Lackawanna  even  in  the 
midst  of  war,  while  the  inhabitants,  long  harassed  by 
fratricidal  warfare,  hoped  to  witness  gleams  of  approach- 
ing peace, 

FIRST  ROAD   FROM  PITTSTON  TO  THE  DELAWARE. 

During  the  year  1772,  the  first  road  from  Pittston  to  the 
Delaware  was  made  by  the  inhabitants.  Previous  to  this, 
the  Governor  of  Pennsylvania,  at  an  official  interview  with 
Teedyuscung,  in  March,  1758,  suggested  to  him  the  pro- 
priety of  opening  a  great  road  from  the  head- waters  of 
the  Susquehanna  down  through  "Wyoming  to  Shamokin,  to 
which  the  shrewd  chief,  from  motives  of  interest,  objected.2 

The  nearest  point  from  the  Westmoreland  Colony  to  the 
settlement  on  the  Delaware  in  the  vicinity  of  Stroudsburg, 
was  about  forty  miles.  From  this  the  valley  was  separated 
by  a  country  whose  general  features  partook  strongly  of 
the  sternness  of  the  times,  while  the  wilderness  from  Ca- 
poose  eastward,  swarming  with  beasts  and  savages,  had 
through  it  no  other  road  than  that  built  with  difficulty  by 
the  first  party  of  emigrants  to  Wyoming,  in  1769. 

This  followed  the  warriors'  trail,  which  was  simply 
widened  by  the  felling  of  large  trees  and  the  removal  of 
a  few  troublesome  stones  for  the  passage  of  a  wagon. 

''Col.  Records,  1775.  *  Col.  Rec..  vol.  viiL,  p.  55. 


138  HISTORY    OF   THE 

Paths  through  the  forest,  made  by  the  Indian  centuries 
before,  and  trodden  by  the  race  that  greeted  the  Pilgrims 
from  the  Mayflower's  deck,  or  trees  marked  by  the  hunter 
or  ax-man  scouting  far  away  from  his  rocky  homestead, 
furnished  the  only  guidance  along  the  forest  profound  in 
the  depth  and  extent  of  its  solitude. 

This  natural  privation  to  every  frontier  settlement  in  the 
earlier  history  of  the  country — the  absence  of  roads — and 
the  necessity  of  better  communication  with  the  parent 
State,  or  the  nearer  villages  toward  the  Hudson,  induced 
the  proprietors  and  settlers  holding  their  meeting  in 
Wilkes  Barre,  October  2,  1772,  to  vote  "that  Mr.  Par- 
kins of  Kingstown,  Mr.  Carey  of  Lockaworna,  Mr.  Goss 
for  Plymouth,  Mr.  Danl.  Gore  for  wilkesbarre,  Mr.  wil- 
liam  Stewart  for  Hannover,  are  appointed  a  comtee  to 
Draw  subscriptions  &  se  what  they  Can  Git  sighned  by 
ye  adjourned  meeting  for  ye  making  a  Rode  from  Dille- 
ware  River  to  Pitts-town." 

At  the  adjourned  meeting,  held  October  5,  1772,  it 
was  "  voted  that  Esq.  Tryp,  Mr.  John  Jenkins,  Mr.  Phil- 
lip Goss,  Mr.  John  Durkins,  Captain  Bates,  Mr.  Daniel 
Gore,  Mr.  william  Stewart  are  appointed  Comtee-meii  to 
mark  out  ye  Rode  from  Dilleware  River  to  Pitts-town," 
etc.1 

This  committee  were  to  act  until  the  completion  of  the 
road.  October  19,  1772,  "voted  that  Esq.  Tryp  is  ap- 
pointed to  oversee  those  persons  that  shall  from  time  to 
time  be  sent  out  from  ye  severall  towns  to  work  on  ye  Road 
from  Dilleware  River  to  this  &  so  that  ye  work  be  Done 
according  to  ye  Directions  of  ye  Com101',  that  was  sent  out 
to  mark  ye  Road."1 

This  road,  then  considered  no  usual  achievement,  was 
commenced  in  November,  1772  ;  every  person  owning 
a  settling  right  in  the  valley,  or  on  "ye  East  Branch 
of  the  Susquehanna  River,"  from  the  Indian  village  of 

1  Westmoreland  Records,  1772.  '  Jbid. 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  139 

Capoose  to  the  mouth  of  the  stream,  assisted  toward  its 
construction. 

Wages  paid  then  would  hardly  tempt  the  sluggard  of 
to-day  from  his  covert,  for  it  was  "  voted,  that  those  Per- 
sons that  shall  Go  out  to  work  on  ye  Rode  from  Dilleware 
River  to  ye  westermost  part  of  ye  Great  Swamp1  Shall  Have 
three  sillings  ye  day  Lawfull  money  for  ye  time  they  work 
to  ye  Exceptance  of  ye  overseors ;  and  from  ye  Great 
Swamp  this  way,  Shall  Have  one  shilling  and  sixpence  pr. 
Day  and  no  more."2 

Isaac  Tripp  being  appointed  to  o.versee  the  work,  was 
allowed  "Five  Shillings  Lawfull  money  pr.  Day."  This 
rough,  hilly  road,  quite  if  not  more  important  in  its  con- 
sequence to  the  people  of  the  inland  settlement  of  that  day 
than  any  other  pike  or  railroad  subsequently  has  been  to 
the  valley,  was  at  length  completed,  and  it  is  said  to  have 
been  judiciously  located. 

MILITARY     ORGANIZATION. 

When  this  road  was  built,  times  were  indeed  perilous. 
Ninety-live  years  ago  the  settler  fought  against  foes  more 
savage  and  exasperated  than  the  yellow  panther  or  the 
bear.  People  in  our  day,  familiar  only  with  the  smooth, 
current  of  rural  life,  can  hardly  estimate  the  exposure  and 
insecurity  of  that  period.  The  pioneer,  as  he  toiled  on  the 
plain  or  in  the  narrow  clearing,  kept  closely  at  his  side  his 
sharpened  knife  and  loaded  musket,  expecting  every  rustle 
of  the  leaf,  every  sound  wafted  by  the  gale  springing  up 
from  the  west,  to  announce  the  approach  of  the  savage. 
And  even  when  they  slept  within  their  lonely  cabins, 
their  arms  stood  freshly  primed  beside  them  awaiting  the 
appearance  of  the  foe. 

In  1772,  it  was  voted  that  each  and  every  settler  should 
provide  himself  with  a  flint-lock  and  ammunition,  and 

1  This  is  now  known  as  the  "  Shades  of  Death."       2  "Westmoreland  Records. 


110  HISTORY    OF   THE 

continue  to  guard  around  the  threatened  plantations  until 
further  notice. 

In  fact,  the  existence  of  all  the  settlements,  as  Connecti- 
cut settlements,  on  the  Lackawanna  or  Susquehanna,  be- 
came so  doubtful  at  times,  from  the  persistent  assaults  of 
the  Pennymites,  and  the  incursions  of  the  savages,  more 
stealthy  yet  less  feared,  that  the  settlers,  occupied  with 
thoughts  of  their  common  safety,  met  every  fourteen  days 
to  practice  military  discipline  and  tactics. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  inhabitants  and  proprietors  held 
March  22,  1773,  it  was  voted  "that  the  Comtee  of  Set- 
tlers be  Desired  to  send  to  the  several  towns  or  to  their 
Comtee  Requiring  them  to  Call  all  the  Inhabitants  in  Each 
of  ye  said  towns  to  meet  on  Thursday  Next  at  five  a 
Clock  in  ye  afternoon  on  sd.  Day  in  some  Convenient 
place  in  sd.  town,  and  that  they  then  Chouse  one  Person 
in  Each  of  sd.  towns  as  an  officer  to  muster  them  &  so  that 
all  are  oequipt  according  to  Law  with  fire  arms  and  am- 
munitions, &  that  they  Cliuse  two  Sergants  &  a  Clerk,  & 
that  the  sd.  Chieff  officer  is  Hereby  Commanded  &  Directed 
to  Call  ye  Inhabitants  together  once  in  14  Days  for  ye 
future  until  this  Company  orders  otherwise,  &  that  in 
Case  of  an  allarm  or  ye  appearance  of  an  Enemy,  he  is 
Directed  to  Call  ye  sd.  Inhabitants  together  &  stand  for 
ye  Defense  of  ye  sd.  towns  &  settlements  without  any 
further  order."  ' 

Order  and  discipline  were  not  only  observed  in  a  mili- 
tary point  of  view,  but  were  carried  into  every  social, 
commercial,  and  domestic  arrangement. 

Thus  by  paying  a  trifle,  settlers  had  voted  to  them  an 
ear  mark  for  cattle  and  sheep.  The  Records  tell  us  that 
"Joseph  Staples,  his  Earmark  a  square  Hole  through  ye 
Left  Ear."  "Job  Tryp  ye  2nd,  His  Ear  mark — a  smooth 
Cross  of  ye  Left  Ear,  &  a  Half  penne  ye  fore  side  of  Each 
Ear."  "William  Raynold,  his  Ear  mark  a  swallow's  tail 
in  ye  left  Ear  &  a  Half  Cross  on  ye  Right  Ear. 

1  Westmoreland  Records. 


LACKAWANXA   VALLKY.  141 

"Entered  April  28th,  1774,  pr.  me  Ezekiel  Pierce, 
Clerk." 

John  Phillip's  ear  mark  was  "a  smooth  cross  of  ye 
Right  Ear  &  a  Half  penney  ye  fore  side  ye  same." 

Swine,  too,  had  rigid  laws  imposed  upon  them. 

A  wandering  one  having  intruded  or  broken  into  Mr.  Ru- 
fus  Lawrence's  field  of  oats,  "back  in  the  woods,"  dama- 
ging thereby  15  bushels  of  oats,  "  August  ye  23d,  1777, 
then  ye  above  stray  Hog  was  sold  to  ye  Highest  Bidder, 
&  Simon  Hodds  was  ye  Highes  Bidder,  and  Bid  her  of  at 

D.    1    3  3 

Constable  fees  for  Posting  the  Hog 0  23 

And  travil  to  Kingstown  District 0  13 

Selling  ye  Hog 0  30 

Clerk's  Fees  forEntiring,  &c 0  10 


1  10  9" 
RELIGION,    TEMPERANCE,    AND   STILL-HOUSES. 

As  there  are  no  Colonial  nor  private  records  to  be  found 
of  the  early  church  movements  in  the  Lackawanna  Val- 
ley, even  if  any  were  made  at  the  time,  it  is  extremely 
difficult,  if  not  quite  impossible,  to  form  any  thing  like  a 
correct  estimate  of  the  moral  and  religious  standard  of 
the  settlers  at  that  day. 

For  religious  purposes  alone,  the  old  Christian  church 
standing  in  Hyde  Park,  was,  with  three  exceptions,  the 
first  one  erected  in  the  valley.  This  was  built  in  1836. 
Some  seven  years  previous  to  this,  a  church  had  been 
erected  in  Carbondale  ;  in  1832,  one  was  erected  in  Blake- 
ley  ;  in  1834,  one  was  raised  in  Providence,  and  blown 
down  the  same  year.  The  plain,  substantial  school-house 
or  log- cabin,  standing  by  the  road-side,  furnished  hospi- 
table places  where  meetings  were  held,  without  display 
or  restraint,  for  very  many  years. 

The  French  and  Indian  war,  running  from  1754  to  1763, 
impeded  religious  advancement  throughout  the  entire 
Colonial  dependencies,  while  the  Indian  troubles  subse- 


142  HISTORY   OF   THE 

quent  to  that  period,  the  E evolutionary  struggle,  as  well 
as  the  intestinal  warfare  in  Wyoming,  all  seem  to  have 
"been  alike  fatal  to  morals  and  life. 

"  Bundling,"  that  easy  but  wicked  habit  of  our  grand- 
fathers, appears  to  have  been  wonderfully  prevalent  at 
an  early  date  along  the  valley,  as  well  as  in  many  other 
portions  of  the  country,  and  was  not  unfreqiiently  at- 
tended with  consequences  that  might  naturally  have  been 
expected  by  a  philosopher.  Besides  this,  there  is  every 
reason  to  believe  that  the  current  morals  of  the  day  had 
the  greatest  liberty  of  standard,  and  that  one  prominent 
and  almost  universal  characteristic  of  the  people  was  the 
love  of  wJtisfct/,  which  was  as  terrible  then  as  now.  As 
early  as  1757,  it  was  found  that  giving  an  Indian  half  a 
gill  of  whisky,  was  attended  with  bad  consequences.1 

The  sale  of  whisky  to  them  was  wholly  stopped  and 
forbidden  by  the  authorities,  in  1765,  as  it  was  perceived 
that  much  of  the  murderous  agitation  in  the  forest  was 
caused  by  rum." 

At  Capoose  or  Wyoming,  Indians  were  not  permitted  to 
drink  the  inspiring  "fire- water,''  as  can  be  seen  by  a  vote 
of  "  the  Propriators  and  Settlers  Belonging  to  ye  Susque- 
hannah  Purchase  Legolly  warned  arid  Held  In  Wilkes- 
barre,  December  7th,  1772.  Voted  that  Asa  Stevens, 
Daniel  Gore,  and  Abel  Heine  are  appointed  to  Inspect 
into  all  ye  Houses  that  Sell  or  Retail  Strong  Drink  on 
forfiture  of  his  or  their  Slettling  Right  or  Rights,  and 
also  forfit  ye  whole  of  ye  Remainder  of  their  Liquor  to 
this  Company,  and  that  ye  Comtcc  above  are  appointed  to 
take  care  of  ye  Liquor  Immediately." 

The  Yankee-like  and  agreeable  provision  of  having  the 
liquor  forfeited,  and  the  Immediate  care  that  was  doubt- 
less directed  to  it  by  those  to  whom  it  was  intrusted,  did 
not  prevent  its  sale  to  the  thirsty  warriors,  who  were  tur- 
bulent and  dangerous  when  under  its  influence.  Their 

1  Col.  Hcc.,  vol.  viu..  p.  11.  *  Ibid.,  vol.  ix.,  p.  500. 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  143 

squaws,  during  their  drunken  frolics,  Avere  often  cruelly 
"beaten,  and  sometimes  badly  wounded. 

Measures  still  more  stringent  and  severe  were  adopted 
by  the  inhabitants  afterward  to  prevent  access  to  it  by  the 
neighboring  savages.  It  was  "voted  that  no  Person  or 
Persons,  settlers  or  forrinors  Coming  into  this  place  shall 
at  any  time  hereafter  Sell  or  Give  to  any  Indian  or  Indians 
any  Spiritous  Lickquors  on  ye  forfitures  of  all  such 
Lickors  and  ye  whole  of  all  their  Goods  and  Chattels, 
Rights,  and  Effects  that  they  Have  on  this  Purchase  ;  and 
also  to  be  voted  out  of  this  Company,  unless  upon  some 
extraordinary  reason,  as  sickness,  etc.,  without  Liberty  first 
had  and  obtained  of  ye  Comtee  of  Settlers,  or  Leave  from 
ye  Comtee  that  is  appointed  to  Into  them  affairs."1 

In  1772  there  was  but  one  licensed  house  in  the  valley 
to  sell  spirituous  liquor.  This  committee,  composed  of 
A  very,  Tripp,  and  others,  met  in  Wilkes  Barre,  in  June, 
1772,  "at  six  a  Clock  in  ye  forenoon"  where,  in  the 
simple  language  of  the  day,  they  resolved  that,  "  Whereas 
there  is  and  may  be  many  Disorders  Committed  by  ye 
Retailing  of  Spiritous  Lichquor  in  Small  Quanteties  to  ye 
Indian  Natives,  which  Disorders  to  prevent  it  is  now 
Voted,  that  there  shall  be  but  one  Publick  house  to  Retail 
Speriteous  Lichquors  in  small  Quonteties  in  Each  of  the 
first  towns,  and  that  Each  Person  for  ye  Purpose  of  Re- 
tailing, as  aforesd.  shall  be  appointed  by  the  Comtee  they 
Belong ;  and  that  they  and  each  of  them  shall  be  under 
the  Direction  of  sd.  Comtee,  by  whom  they  are  appointed, 
Not  Repugnant  to  ye  Laws  of  the  Colony  of  Connecticut^ 
and  that  such  Retailors  that  shall  not  Duly  observe  such 
Directions  and  Restrictions  as  they  shall  severally  receive 
from  sd.  Comtee,  shall  on  Complaint  made  to  this  Com- 
pany, shall  see  Cause  to  Inflict,  Not  Exceeding  his  or 
their  Settling  Right,  Regard  being  Had  to  ye  Nature  and 
agrevation  of  ye  offence."2 

1  Westmoreland  Records,  1772.  2  Ibid. 


144  HISTORY    OF   THE 

At  this  time  there  was  no  still-house  in  the  colony.  An 
embargo  was,  for  a  short  time,  laid  upon  the  transporta- 
tion of  grain.  Dec.  18,  1772,  it  was  voted  at  the  town 
meeting,  ''that  no  Person  or  Persons  Now  Belonging  to 
the  Susquhannah  Purchase,  from  the  18th  Day  of  this 
present  December,  until  ye  first  Day  of  May  Next,  shall 
sell  to  any  person  or  Forrinor  or  Stranger  any  Indian 
Corn,  Rye,  or  AVheat  to  Carry  Down  the  River  out  of  ye 
Limits  of  this  Purchase." 

In  fact,  the  amount  of  grain  then  raised  both  in  Wyo- 
ming and  Lackawanna,  was  so  scanty  and  limited,  that 
within  all  the  country  now  embraced  by  Luzerne  County, 
no  half  bushel  measure  was  required  until  1772.  It  was 
then  voted  "  that  this  Company  shall  at  ye  Cost  &  Charge 
of  this  Company  as  soon  as  may  be,  send  out  to  ye  Near- 
est County  town  in  ye  Coloney's,  &  Procure  a  Sealed 
Half  Bushel  &  a  peck  measure  &  one  Gallon  pot,  Quort 
pott,  point  pot,  Half  point  &  Gill  measure,  for  a  Standard 
and  Rule  for  this  Company  to  by  soon  as  may,  and  also 
sutable  weights  as  ye  Law  Providedes,  etc." 

Nothing,  however,  contributed  so  much  toward  estab- 
lishing stiU-Jiouses  here  than  the  absence  of  a  market  for 
the  grain  raised  upon  the  lowlands  in  great  abundance. 
Whisky  had  a  commercial  and  an  accepted  importance, 
superior  to  the  depreciated  Continental  currency,  besides  it 
had  the  virtue  of  always  being  ready  and  practical  in  its 
application.  One  gallon  of  whisky,  being  worth  fifteen  or 
twenty  cents,  was  deemed  equivalent  to  a  bushel  of  rye. 
Wheat  was  carried  in  huge  wagons  to  Easton,  a  distance 
of  nearly  seventy  miles  through  the  wilderness,  and  ex- 
changed for  large  iron  kettles  for  boiling  maple  sap  into 
sugar.  The  journey  generally  took  a  week,  and  the  wheat 
brought  from  seventy  to  eighty  cents  per  bushel.  The 
kettles  were  hired  out  to  persons  having  maple  woods  ; 
one  pound  of  sugar  per  year  being  given  for  each  gallon 
held  by  the  rented  vessel.  The  maple  sugar,  run  into 
cakes  of  every  conceivable  variety  and  size,  was  worth 


LACK  A  WANNA   VALLEY.  145 

fine  cents  per  pound,  and  was  for  a  long  time  the  only 
kind  used  in  the  settlement. 

The  isolated  condition  of  the  settlers,  stern  and  somber 
in  many  respects,  was  not  without  its  gleams  of  sunshine. 
When  the  wool  was  gathered  from  the  sheep,  or  the  well- 
dressed  flax  ready  for  the  spindle,  the  young  and  bloom- 
ing girls,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  people,  assem- 
bled at  some  point  in,  the  neighborhood,  generally  under 
the  shade  of  some  tree,  with  their  "  spinning-wheels ;" 
where,  in  a  single  afternoon,  knot  after  knot  of  yarn  came 
from  their  nimble  hands,  which  afterward  was  woven  and 
whitened  into  sheets  for  the  coming  bride.  Dressed  in 
red-dyed  fabrics,  manufactured  by  their  own  tidy  hands, 
they  brought  with  their  simple  gear  and  glowing  cheeks 
more  pleasure,  and  gave  more  artless  charms  to  the 
maiden  not  ashamed  to  toil  in  field  or  house,  than  all  the 
daubs  of  to-day  bestow  upon  the  thoughtless  wearer. 

In  the  clear,  crisp  edge  of  an  evening  in  autumn,  came 
troops  of  boys  from  remote  parts  of  the  valley,  on  foot  or 
on  horseback,  as  was  the  custom  to  travel  from  place  to 
place ;  if  women  rode,  it  was  behind  the  man  upon  the 
horse's  back.  As  the  spinning  or  husking  ceased,  the 
enjoyments  of  the  evening  began.  The  supper-table  was 
now  spread  by  clean  hands,  with  rye-bread,  pumpkin- 
pies,  "  Jonny-cake,"  and  dough-nuts,  whisky,  and  rich 
milk,  and  when  all  were  gathered  around  it,  many  were 
the  good  wishes  and  sweet  words  whispered  behind  a 
pile  of  dough-nuts  or  friendly  bowl.  Some  boisterous 
games  closed  up  the  amusements  of  the  evening,  when  in 
the  soft  light  of  an  autumn  moon,  the  "gals" — as  all 
women  at  that  day  were  called — wended  their  way 
slowly  homeward  with  their  beaus. 

In  accordance  with  the  New  England  habit,  Saturday 
night,  if  any,  was  observed  instead  of  Sunday  evening. 
With  the  sunset  of  Saturday  night  all  labors  closed  until 
the  following  Sunday  at  sundown.  The  youth  went  to 

see  his  sweetheart  on  Saturday  evening,  as  it  then  was 

10 


146  HISTORY    OF    THE 

considered  the  regular  time  for  courting.  As  "many 
hands  make  light  work"  the  older  people  often  met  for 
a  "logging  bee," — away  of  destroying  logs,  by  rolling 
them  in  heaps  and  burning  them  ;  which  was  at  one 
time  the  only  mode  of  getting  rid  of  some  of  the  finest 
timber  growing  in  a  new  country,  before  railroads,  with 
their  iron  nets  caught  up  the  products  of  the  forest  from 
the  spoilers  handspike. 

The  coarser  grain  being  turned  into  the  still-house, 
made  whisky  so  cheap  that  no  "  husking,"  "  raising,"  or 
"logging  bee,"  nor  any  public  business  or  social  meet- 
ings of  the  inhabitants  took  place  without  this  abun- 
dant product  of  the  still. 

The  negative  spirit  of  morality  prevailing  in  all  the 
settlements  as  early  as  1773,  not  coming  up  to  the  rigid 
standard  of  New  England  proprietary,  led  the  better  class 
of  inhabitants,  at  a  meeting  of  the  Proprietors  held  at 
Wilkes  Barre,  Feb'y  16,  of  this  year,  even  in  the  midst 
of  commotion,  to  appoint  a  committee  composed  of 
"William  Stewart,  Isaac  Tryp,  Esq.,  and  others  "to  draw 
a  plan  in  order  to  suppress  vise  arid  immorality  that 
abounds  so  much  amongst  us,  and  carry  ye  same  before 
ye  next  meeting."1 

Twenty-five  years  later,  the  progress  ice  measures  of 
public  morals  are  recorded  in  the  following  curious  deed 
of  land,  bearing  date  August  15,  1798,  from  Messrs.  Bald- 
win and  Faulkner  to  Joseph  Fellows  :— 

"  Know  all  Men  by  these  Presents,  that  we  Waterman 
Baldwin  &  Robert  Faulkner,  both  of  Pittstown  in  the 
County  of  Luxerne,  in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  being 
desirous  to  promote  the  interest  and  general  Welfare 
of  said  Pittstown,  and  to  encourage  and  enable  Joseph 
Fellows  of  the  said  Town,  County  and  State,  To  erect 
a  Malt-house  and  Beer-house,  which  ice  conceive  will 
prove  of  general  utility  to  our  neighborhood,  as  also  in 

1  Westmoreland  Records,  1773. 


LACKA.WANNA.    VALLEY.  147 

consideration  of  Fifty  cents  to  each  of  us  paid  by  the 
said  Joseph  Fellows  to  our  full  satisfaction,  &c.,  sell  to 
said  Fellows  a  certain  piece  of  land  for  the  purposes 
just  named." 

In  1800,  eiglit  still  or  beer  houses  stood  along  the  Lack- 
awanna  from  its  mouth  to  the  upper  border  of  Capoose, 
in  prosperous  operation,  located  as  follows  :  Asa  Dimock 
and  Joseph  Fellows,  each  had  one  never  idle  in  Pittston  ; 
Mr.  Hubbuts,  another  in  Lackawanna ;  Benjamin  and 
Ebenezer  Slocum  owned  two  in  Slocum  Hollow  ;  Captain 
John  Vaughn  and  Mr.  Stevens  operated  one  in  upper 
Providence  (now  Blakeley),  while  Stephen  and  Isaac 
Tripp  each  ran  with  vigor  their  separate  stills  upon 
Tripp's  Flats ;  all  distilling  the  cheap  and  surplus  corn  and 
rye  into  a  beverage  finding  a  ready  market.  Located  as 
it  were  almost  before  every  man' s  door,  these  institutions, 
looked  upon  with  favor  by  the  yeomanry  of  the  valley, 
drew  from  the  ripened  grain  the  bewildering  draught,  used 
from  the  cradle  to  the  grave.  Children  put  to  sleep  by 
eating  bread  soaked  in  whisky  and  maple  sirup,  gave  no 
trouble  to  mother  or  nurse,  as  they  grew  rapidly  in  stature 
and  good-nature.  And  yet  popular  as  was  this  beverage 
everywhere  in  Pennsylvania,  striking  the  brightest  intel- 
lects or  narcotizing  the  feeblest  conceptions,  its  adultera- 
tion was  so  well  understood  by  Daniel  Broadhead.  com- 
mander of  Fort  Pitt  in  1780,  who,  when  officially  informed 
that  a  requisition  for  7,000  gallons  of  whisky  had  been 
made  for  the  troops  in  the  District  of  Westmoreland, 
indulged  in  the  hope  that  "  we  shall  yet  be  allowed  some 
liquor  which  is  fit  to  drink." 1 

If  the  morals  of  the  community  a  century  ago,  took  some 
romantic  strolls  to  suit  the  taste  or  condition  of  the  pio- 
neers, they  were  in  a  great  measure  vindicated  by  the 
necessities  which  instituted  them.  But  little  gold  or 
silver  found  its  way  into  the  settlement,  bank  bills  were 

1  Pa.  Arch.,  1780,  p.  G41. 


148  HISTORY    OF    TI1E 

unknown,  and  as  the  Revolutionary  Scrip,  treasured  "by 
few,  had  but  indifferent  value,  the  commercial  agency  of 
whisk}'  was  recognized  in  all  the  laws  of  trade  with  the 
same  uniformity  and  force  that  the  Indians  in  their  polit- 
ical economy  acknowledged  the  currency  of  zeawant  or 
wampum.  Property  changed  hands,  and  many  a  settler 
acquired  a  peaceful  title  to  wild  domains  by  the  exchange 
of  a  few  gallons  of  whisky. 

These  still-houses  were  well  patronized,  and  brought 
incipient  fortunes  to  their  possessors,  because  they  were 
thus  sustained  by  men  who  prized  and  practiced  the 
largest  latitude  of  liberty. 

In  1788,  the  only  person  recommended  to  the  Supreme 
Executive  Council  of  Pennsylvania  as  suitable  to  keep  a 
house  of  entertainment  in  Pittston,  was  Waterman  Bald- 
win. The  next  year  he  was  indicted  for  keeping  a  tip- 
pling-house,  and  fined  five  pounds.  The  next  person  in 
the  Lackawanna  Valley  receiving  a  license  from  the 
Governor  of  Pennsylvania  to  open  a  tavern,  in  1791,  was 
Johnathan  Davies. 

SAW   AND   GRIST   MILLS. 

Logs  rolled  up  in  their  rough  state  into  a  log-house, 
with  every  crevice  chinked  with  mud,  or  bark  peeled 
from  the  tree  and  shaped  by  the  aid  of  young  saplings 
into  a  wigwam-like  cabin,  rude  and  diminutive  in  out- 
line, formed  the  only  dwelling  of  the  pioneer  a  century 
ago.  Ash-trees  ungracefully  split  by  the  beetle  and 
wedge  into  thin  layers,  or  the  more  readily  prepared 
bark,  afforded  roofing,  whose  special  purpose  seemed  to 
be  to  let  in  every  unwelcome  element,  without  regard  to 
economy  or  comfort. 

As  the  settlement  expanded  up  the  rich  and  narrow 
valley,  the  need  of  a  saw  and  grist  mill  became  so  urgent, 
that  in  the  summer  of  1774,  one  of  each  was  built  by  the 
township  of  Pittstown  below  "  Ye  Great  Falls  in  the 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  149 

Lackawanna  River."  l  The  same  year,  they  were  both 
purchased  by  Solomon  Strong,  and  from  him  they  passed 
into  the  hands  of  Grarrit  Brinkorkoof,  July  6,  1775.  They 
were  the  first  mills  erected  on  the  bank  of  the  Lacka- 
wanna. After  doing  good  service  to  the  settlement,  both 
mills  were  destroyed,  either  by  the  spring  freshets  or  the 
torch  of  the  Tories  and  Indians,  leaving  in  1778  but  a  sin- 
gle dwelling  unharmed  along  the  entire  Lackawanna — that 
of  Ebenezer  Marcy.  The  waterfall  here  was  so  admirably 
adapted  to  mill  purposes,  and  the  straight  pine,  green 
with  its  foliage,  running  from  creek  to  mountain,  seemed 
so  easy  of  conquest,  that  Solomon  Finn  and  Elephat  L. 
Stevens  were  induced  to  build  a  saw-mill  at  this  point 
in  1780.  Down  the  steep  bank,  opposite  the  upper  end 
of  Everhart's  Island  in  Pittston,  half  a  mile  above  the 
depot  of  the  L.  &  B.  R.  R.,  totter  the  walls  of  a  fallen 
grist-mill,  once  standing  upon  the  foundation  of  this  old 
saw-mill.  The  song  of  its  jarring  saw,  sent  far  up  and 
down  the  wooded  glen  in  olden  times,  long  since  has 
ceased  to  tell  the  story  of  its  former  usefulness  and 
glory. 

In  1798,  Isaac  Tripp  and  his  son  Stephen,  built  a  small 
grist-mill  on  Leggitt's  Creek,  in  Providence,  but  the  dam, 
thrice  built  and  thrice  washed  away,  owing  to  defective 
construction,  proving  a  failure,  the  mill  was  abandoned. 
The  next  grist-mill  built  upon  this  stream  still  farther  up 
in  the  Notch,  was  erected  in  1815  by  Ephraim  Leach. 

A  saw-mill  was  built  upon  the  Lackawanna,  in  Blakeley 
Township  in  1812,  by  Moses  Vaughn ;  in  1814,  Timothy 
Stevens,  a  mill-wright  of  some  character,  erected  a  grist- 
mill above  this  point ;  in  1816,  Edmund  Harford  began 
another  upon  one  of  the  fairest  of  the"  upper  tributaries 
of  the  Wallenpaupack,  in  Wayne  County,  a  few  miles 
above  the  ancient  Lackawa  settlement. 

1  Westmoreland  Records,  1774. 


150  HISTORY    OF    THE 


DR.    JOSEPH  6PEAUGE. 

With  the  first  party  of  adventurers  coming  into  Wyo- 
ming, there  came  no  physician,  because  the  invigorating 
character  of  exercise  and  diet  enjoyed  by  the  pioneer, 
whose  daily  life,  enlivened  by  the  choir  of  falling  trees 
or  the  advancing  ax,  knew  the  want  of  no  medical  repre- 
sentative, until  Dr.  Joseph  Sprauge  came  from  Hartford 
in  1771. 

Of  the  yet  uninhabited  forest,  called  in  the  ancient 
records,  "Ye  Town  of  Lockaworna,"  whose  upper 
boundaries  extended  nearly  to  the  present  village  of 
Scranton,  Dr.  Sprauge  was  one  of  the  original  proprie- 
tors. To  dispose  of  lots  or  pitches  to  the  venturing 
woodsman,  probably  contributed  more  to  bring  him 
hither  than  any  expectation  of  professional  emoluments 
or  advantage  in  a  wilderness,  making,  in  the  hands  of  the 
Indian,  a  matei'ia  medico,  which  no  disease  could  gainsay 
or  resist. 

His  first  land  sales  were  made  in  May,  1772. l  Fora 
period  of  thirteen  years,  with  the  exception  of  the  sum- 
mer of  1778,  Dr.  Sprauge  lived  near  the  Lackawanna, 
between  Springbrook  and  Pittston,  in  happy  seclusion, 
fishing,  hunting,  and  farming,  until,  with  the  other  Yan- 
kee settlers,  he  was  driven  from  the  valley,  in  1784,  by 
the  Pennymites.  He  died  in  Connecticut  the  same  year. 

His  widow,  known  throughout  the  settlement  far  and 
near,  as  ''Granny  Sprauge,"  returned  to  Wyoming  in 
1785,  and  lived  in  a  small  log-house  then  standing  in 
Wilkes  Barre,  on  the  southwest  corner  of  Main  and  Union 
streets.  She  was  a  worthy  old  lady,  prompt,  cheerful, 
successful,  and,  at  this  time,  the  sole  accoucheur  in  all 
the  wide  domain  now  embraced  by  Luzerne  and  Wyoming 
counties.  Although  of  great  age,  as  late  as  1810  her  ob- 
stetrical practice  surpassed  that  of  any  physician  in  this 

1  Sec  Westmoreland  Records,  1772. 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  151 

portion  of  Pennsylvania.  For  attending  a  case  of  ac- 
couchement, no  matter  how  distant  the  journey,  how  long 
or  fatiguing  the  detention,  this  sturdy,  faithful  woman 
invariably  charged  one  dollar  for  services  rendered, 
although  a  larger  fee  was  never  turned  away,  if  any  one 
was  able  or  rash  enough  to  offer  it. 

DR.    WILLIAM  HOOKER   SMITH   AND   OLD   FORGE. 

If  the  Lackawanna  Valley  owes  its  earliest  explora- 
tions and  settlement  wholly  to  Moravian  fugitives,  who, 
to  escape  persecution,  fled  from  the  banks  of  the  Neckar 
and  the  Elbe  to  the  yet  untroubled  plateau  above  the 
Blue  Mountains,  in  1742,  it  owes  to  the  memory  of  the 
late  Dr.  William  Hooker  Smith,  whose  mind  first  rec- 
ognized and  faintly  developed  its  mineral  treasures,  its 
grateful  acknowledgments. 

He  emigrated  from  "  ye  Province  of  New  York,"  *  and 
located  in  the  Wilkes  Barre  clearing  in  1772,  where  he 
purchased  land  in  1774. 

The  Doctor's  father  was  a  Presbyterian  clergyman  liv- 
ing in  the  city  of  New  York,  and  the  only  minister  there 
of  this  denomination  in  1732  ;  and  such  was  the  feeble- 
ness of  his  congregation,  that  he  preached  one-third  of  his 
time  at  White  Plains.2 

As  a  surgeon  and  physician,  his  abilities  were  of  such 
high  order  that  he  occupied  a  position  in  the  colony,  as 
gratifying  to  him  as  it  was  honorable  to  those  enjoying 
his  undoubted  skill  and  experience.  With  the  exception 
of  Dr.  Sprauge,  Dr.  Smith  was  the  only  physician  in 
1772  living  between  Cochecton  and  Snnbury,  a  distance 
of  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles. 

The  formation  of  Luzerne  County  created  positions  of 
trust  and  honor,  among  which  was  the  magisterial  one ; 
and  although  the  doctor  was  a  Yankee  by  birth,  habit, 
and  education,  such  confidence  was  reposed  in  his  capacity 

1  Westmoreland  Records,  17772.  "  Hist.  Col.,  K  Y. 


152  HISTORY    OK    TIITC 

and  integrity,  that  he  was  chosen  the  first  justice  in  the 
fifth  district  of  the  new  county.  His  commission,  signed 
by  Benj.  Franklin,  then  President  of  the  Supreme  Execu- 
tive Council  of  Pennsylvania,  bears  date  May  11,  1787. 

In  1770,  he  marched  with  the  troops  under  General  Sul- 
livan into  the  Indian  country  along  the  upper  waters  of 
the  Susquehanna,  and  by  his  cheerfulness  and  example 
taught  the  soldiers  to  endure  their  hardships  and  fatigues, 
taking  himself  an  earnest  part  in  that  memorable  expedi- 
tion which  brought  such  relief  to  Wyoming  arid  such 
glory  to  the  American  arms. 

Nor  did  Congress,  prompted  by  noble  impulses,  forget 
his  services  as  acting  surgeon  in  the  army,  when,  in  1838, 
$2,400  was  voted  to  his  heirs. 

That  his  mind,  active,  keen,  and  ready,  looked  beyond 
the  ordinary  conceptions  of  his  day,  is  shown  by  his  pur- 
chased right,  in  1791,  to  dig  iron  ore  and  stone  coal  in 
Pittston,  long  before  the  character  of  coal  as  a  heating 
agent  was  understood,  and  the  same  year  that  the  hunter 
Gunther  accidentally  discovered  "black-stones"  on  the 
broad,  Bear  Mountain  nine  miles  from  Mauch  Chunk. 

These  purchases,  attracting  no  other  notice  than  general 
ridicule,  were  made  in  Exeter,  Plymouth,  Pittston,  Provi- 
dence, and  Wilkes  Barre,  between  1791-8.  The  first  was 
made  July  1,  1791,  of  Mr.  Scot,  of  Pittston,  who,  for  the 
sum  of  live  shillings,  Pennsylvania  money,  sold  "one 
half  of  any  minerals,  ore  of  iron,  or  other  metal  which  he, 
the  said  Smith,  or  his  heirs,  or  assighns,  may  discover  on 
the  hilly  lands  of  the  said  John  Scot  by  the  red  spring."  ' 

Old  Forge  derived  its  name  from  Dr.  Smith,  who,  after 
his  return  from  Sullivan's  expedition,  located  himself  per- 
manently here  on  the  rocky  edge  of  the  Susquehanna, 
beside  the  sycamore  and  oak,  where  first  in  the  valley  the 
sound  of  the  trip-hammer  reverberated,  or  mingled  with 
the  hoarse  babblings  of  its  water.  The  forge  was  erected 

1  Luzcrnc  Countv  Records. 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  153 

by  Dr.  Smith  and  James  S-utton  in  the  spring  of  1789,  for 
converting  ore  into  iron.  It  stood  immediately  below  the 
falls  or  rapids  in  the  stream,  about  two  miles  above  its 
mouth,  and  not  far  from  the  reputed  location  of  the  silver 
mine  before  spoken  of.  Before  the  erection  of  these  iron- 
works none  existed  in  Westmoreland  except  those  in  New- 
port, operating  in  1777. 

"My  recollections  of  Pittston  and  Old  Forge,"  wrote 
the  late  Hon.  Charles  Miner,  in  a  letter  to  the  writer,  twelve 
years  ago,  "are  all  of  the  most  cheerful  character.  I 
have,  at  the  old  tavern,  on  the  bank  of  the  river  above 
the  ferry,  seen  the  son  of  Capt.  Dethic  Hewit,  the  gallant 
old  fellow,  who,  in  the  battle,  when  told,  '  See,  Capt. 
Hewit,  the  left  wing  has  given  away,  and  the  Indians  are 
upon  us  ;  shall  we  retreat  V  answered  to  his  negro  drum- 
mer, Skittish  Pomp,  'No,  I'll  see  them  damned  lirst,'  and 
fell.  His  son  was  at  the  house,  and  sang  with  the  spirit 
his  father  fought— 

"  '  So  sweetly  the  horn 

Called  me  up  in  the  morn,'  &c.,  &c. 

"  But  to  the  Forge. 

"The  heaps  of  charcoal  and  bog  ore,  half  a  dozen  New 
Jersey  firemen  at  the  furnace  !  What  life  !  What  clat- 
ter !  And  then  at  the  mansion,  on  the  hill,  might  be  seen 
the  owner,  Dr.  Wm.  Hooker  Smith,  now  nearly  super- 
annuated, who,  in  his  day,  was  the  great  physician  of  the 
valley  during  the  war,  and  if,  perchance,  the  day  was 
fine,  and  his  family  on  the  parterre,  you  might  see  his 
daughters,  unsurpassed  in  beauty  and  grace,  whose  every 
movement  was  harmony  that  would  add  a  charm  to  the 
proudest  city  mansion." 

The  doctor  was  a  plain,  practical  man,  a  firm  adherent 
of  the  theory  of  medicine  as  taught  and  practiced  by  his 
sturdy  ancestors  a  century  ago.  He  was  an  unwavering 
phlebotomist.  Armed  with  huge  saddle-bags  rattling  with 
gallipots  and  vials  and  thirsty  lance,  he  sallied  forth  on 


154  HISTORY    OF    THE 

horseback  over  the  rough  country  calling  for  his  services, 
and  many  were  the  cures  issuing  from  the  unloosed  vein. 
No  matter  what  the  nature  or  location  of  the  disease, 
how  strong  or  slight  the  assailing  pain,  bleeding  promptly 
and  largely,  with  a  system  of  diet,  drink,  and  rest,  was 
enforced  on  the  patient  with  an  earnestness  and  success 
that  gave  him  a  wide- spread  reputation  as  a  physician. 

The  forge  prospered  for  years — two  fires  and  a  single 
trip-hammer  manufacturing  a  considerable  amount  of  iron, 
which  was  floated  down  the  Susquehanna  in  Durham 
boats  and  large  canoes.  The  impure  quality  and  small 
quantity  of  ore  found  and  wrought  into  iron,  with 
knowledge  and  machinery  alike  defective  ;  the  labor  and 
expense  of  smelting  the  raw  material  into  ready  iron  in 
less  demand  down  the  Susquehanna,  where  forges  and 
furnaces  began  to  blaze  ;  the  natural  infirmities  of  age,  as 
well  as  the  rival  forge  of  Slocunfs,  at  Slocum  Hollow,  all 
ultimately  disarmed  Old  Forge  of  its  fire  and  trip-ham- 
mer. 

After  leaving  his  forge,  he  removed  up  the  Susquehan- 
na, near  Tunkhannock,  where,  full  of  years,  honor,  and 
usefulness,  he  died  in  1815,  among  his  friends,  at  the  good 


old  age  of  91. 


THE    SIGNAL   THEE. 


As  the  emigrant  from  Connecticut  found  himself,  after  a 
long  journey,  on  one  of  the  peaks  of  the  Moosic  Moun- 
tain, five  miles  northeast  from  Scranton,  overlooking  the 
fertile  plain  of  Wyoming,  twenty  miles  away,  he  could 
discover,  by  the  naked  eye,  when  the  day  was  clear, 
looming  up  from  the  surrounding  trees,  covering  the  moun- 
tains northwest  of  Wyoming,  a  pine-tree,  majestic  in  its 
height,  its  trunk  shorn  of  its  limbs  almost  to  its  very  top, 
resembling,  from  the  marked  umbrel  spread  of  its  foliage, 
a  great  umbrella,  with  the  handle  largely  disproportioned. 
This  is  the  tree  known  as  the  signal  tree.  Over  the  deep 
foliage  of  trees  surrounding,  this  one  floats  with  an  air  of 


LACKAWANNA    VALLKY.  155 

a  monarch,  catching,  as  the  sun  sinks  away  in  the  west, 
the  latest  glimpse  of  its  rays.  "Turtle's  Creek,"  famous 
for  its  Pennymite  history  and  local  interest,  leads  its 
sluggish  way  through  Kingston,  from  which  this  grand 
pitch-pine  is  plainly  visible.  Tradition  tells  that  at  the 
time  of  the  battle,  an  Indian  was  stationed  in  the  top  of 
the  tree,  so  that  when  the  defeat  of  the  whites  was  an- 
nounced by  the  louder  peals  of  the  war-whoop,  he  com- 
menced to  cut  off  the  limbs  of  the  tree,  and  as  this  could 
be  seen  many  miles  from  every  direction,  parties  of  In- 
dians were  thus  informed  to  watch  the  paths  leading  out 
of  the  valley  and  prevent  the  escape  of  the  fugitives. 
This,  however,  is  mere  tradition.  A  more  reasonable  in- 
terpretation of  the  matter  is  this  :  Some  years  ago  one  of 
the  knots  of  this  tree  was  removed,  and  from  the  con- 
centric rings  or  yearly  growths  indicated  by  them,  the 
lopping  of  the  limbs  was  dated  back  to  1762 — the  first 
year  a  settlement  was  commenced  here  by  the  whites — 
thus  showing  quite  clearly  that  the  tree  had  been  trimmed 
previous  to  the  massacre,  and  that  it  had  been  used  by  the 
emigrating  parties  from  Connecticut  as  a  guiding  tree  to 
the  Wyoming  lands,  where  a  colony,  with  no  roads  but 
the  warriors'  pathway,  and  but  little  knowledge  of  a  re- 
liable character  of  the  locality  of  the  new  country,  crossed 
the  frowning  mountains,  mostly  on  foot,  and  made  a  per- 
manent residence  in  1769. 

Evidence  of  fracture,  made  by  the  ax  or  hatchet,  a 
century  ago,  upon  the  limbs,  has  been  so  obliterated  by 
intervening  years,  that  the  indifferent  and  unskilled  ob- 
server looks  in  vain  for  the  cause  of  the  absent  limbs. 

THE  WYOMING  MASSACRE. 

The  summer  of  1778,  momentous  in  the  history  of  the 
Lackawanna  Valley,  witnessed  either  the  slaughter,  cap- 
ture, or  flight  of  every  white  person  within  its  border. 
There  is  no  data  to  determine  the  exact  population  of 


156  HISTORY    OF    THE 

the  Lackawanna  portion  of  the  Wyoming  possessions 
in  1774.  Westmoreland,  embracing  all  the  settlements 
on  the  Susquehanna  from  Athens  to  Wyoming,  and  from 
Wai lenpan pack  to  the  mouth  of  the  Lackawanna,  had 
about  2,300  inhabitants  at  this  time.  Of  this  number, 
Wyoming,  with  its  broad  productive  acres,  had  a  large 
proportion,  because  of  the  greater  protection  of  its  shelter- 
ing block-houses.  Seventy-five  or  about  one  hundred 
persons,  probably  enumerated  the  wJiole  united  popula- 
tion of  the  Lackawanna  Valley  at  the  commencement  of 
the  American  Revolution.  These  shared  in  the  deliber- 
ations and  dangers  of  their  brethren  along  the  Susque- 
hanna. 

Although  the  people  of  Connecticut  met  at  Hartford  in 
September,  1774,  to  devise  measures  of  resistance  to 
British  wrong,  her  young  colony  at  Wyoming,  just  formed 
into  the  town  of  Westmoreland,  absorbed  with  the  Pro- 
vincial conflict,  now  interrupted  and  then  resumed,  had 
done  nothing  in  the  way  of  building  forts,  or  preparing 
for  the  bloodier  wrestle  for  independence,  until  it  had 
actually  begun.  At  a  town  meeting,  "legally  warned 
and  held  in  Westmoreland,  Wilkes  Barre  district,  Aug. 
24th,  177G,"  it  was  unanimously  voted  that  the  people 
erect  forts  in  Hanover,  Plymouth,  Wilkes  Barn1,  and 
Pittston  at  once,  at  points  deemed  most  judicious  by  the 
military  committee,  "without  either  fee  or  reward  from 
ye  town."  * 

This  was  done  so  generally,  that  before  the  battle  on 
Abraham's  Plains,  July  3,  1778,  there  stood  eight  forts  in 
Wyoming  Valley,  constructed  principally  of  logs. 

On  the  high  bank  of  the  river,  nearly  opposite  Pittston, 
where  a  large  spring  of  water  emerges  from  the  plain, 
there  had  settled  a  Tory  named  Wintermoot,  who,  after 
clearing  sufficient  land,  erected  a  rude  stockade  or  fort, 
known  as  Wintermoot' a  Fort.  Although  this  simple  fact 

1  Westmoreland  Records. 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  157 

afforded  no  evidence  of  Tory  proclivities,  its  erection  at 
this  point,  at  this  exciting  period,  justly  aroused  the  sus- 
picions of  the  loyal  element  in  the  neighborhood,  and  led 
to  the  erection  of  another  a  mile  above  Wintermoot's, 
where  lived  the  acknowledged  patriotic  families  of  the 
Hardings  and  Jenkinses.  It  stood  in  the  narrow  defile  in 
the  mountain  nearly  opposite  Campbell's  Ledge,  a  mile 
above  the  mouth  of  the  Lackawanna. 

To  meet  some  of  the  demands  of  war,  Congress  called 
upon  Connecticut,  in  August,  1776,  to  raise  two  companies 
of  eighty-four  men  each  for  the  defense  of  Westmoreland. 
Wyoming  promptly  furnished  them.  No  sooner,  however, 
was  the  number  complete,  than  Congress,  itself  in  jeop- 
ardy, and  yet  unremitting  in  its  efforts  to  raise  troops, 
saw  with  concern  the  critical  and  greater  needs  of  the 
country  elsewhere.  The  American  army,  of  about  14,000 
men,  under  General  Washington,  had  been  driven  from 
Long  Island  and  New  York  by  the  British  army,  number- 
ing 25,000.  Forts  Washington  and  Lee,  on  the  Hud- 
son, had  fallen.  With  only  3,000  brave  men,  General 
Washington  retreated  to  Newark,  and  was  driven  from 
camp  to  camp  with  his  half-fed,  ill-clothed,  yet  unswerv- 
ing soldiers,  crossing  the  Delaware  as  the  victorious 
British  approached  Philadelphia.  At  this  dark  moment 
in  the  nation's  history,  Congress,  which  had  hastily  ad- 
journed the  same  day  from  Philadelphia  to  Baltimore, 
hardly  appreciating  the  perils  menacing  Wyoming,  or- 
dered the  two  companies  raised  for  its  defense  to  join 
the  commander-in-chief  "with  all  possible  expedition" 
This  being  done,  Wyoming  was  left  comparatively  de- 
fenseless. 

Events  of  vast  importance  began  to  develop  in  many 
parts  of  the  country,  and  excite  apprehension  in  the  mind 
of  the  patriot.  Burgoyne,  with  victorious  troops,  was 
sweeping  down  from  the  Canadian  frontier,  accompanied 
by  his  red  and  white  skinned  auxiliaries,  ready  for  pillage 
or  revenge.  Ticonderoga  had  fallen  into  his  hands,  and 


158  HISTORY    OF    THE 

while  General  Howe  was  crowding  up  victory  after  vic- 
tory in  New  York  and  New  Jersey,  the  Indians  living 
along  the  upper  branches  of  the  Susquehanna  and  Che- 
nango,  restless  and  joyous  with  the  hope  held  out  by 
Brant  and  Butler  of  regaining  their  lost  Wyoming,  be- 
came unanimous  and  sanguinary  allies.  Parties  of  them 
were  seen,  here  and  there,  emerging  from  the  mountain 
forest  into  the  valley,  shedding  no  blood,  destroying  no 
property,  but  securing  a  captive  at  every  possible  oppor- 
tunity. The  whole  settlement  saw  and  felt  the  coming 
danger.  Scouting  parties  of  bold,  experienced  woodmen, 
were  sent  out  daily  from  the  valley  to  watch  the  three 
great  war-paths  radiating  from  it,  while  drillings  or  train- 
ings were  held  every  fourteen  days,  when  the  old  and 
young,  the  feeble  and  the  strong,  drilled  side  by  side  in 
their  country's  service  ;  expecting  every  bark  of  the 
watch -dog,  or  click  of  the  rifle,  to  give  note  of  the 
approach  of  the  exasperated  bands. 

The  colony,  now  (1778)  nine  years  old,  had,  out  of  its  total 
population  of  about  2,000  persons,  168  in  the  main  army 
under  General  Washington,  when  the  meditated  attack 
on  Wyoming  came  to  the  knowledge  of  the  inhabitants. 
A  large  body  of  Indians  and  Tories  had  assembled  at 
Niagara  and  at  Tioga  for  this  purpose  ;  the  Indians  being 
under  the  command  of  the  famous  chief  of  mixed  blood, 
named  Brant,  or  Gi-en-gwdh-toh.*  The  time  of  attack  was 
probably  suggested  by  the  Tories  expelled  from  Wyoming, 
wishing  for  the  bloodiest  revenge1  upon  the  settlement, 
known  to  be  almost  without  soldiers  or  iire-arms. 

From  the  lower  Susquehanna,  the  Delaware,  the  far-off 
Lacka waxen,  from  the  few  low  wigwams  serving  the  wild 
men  on  the  Lackawanna,  the  Indians  were  summoned  by 
the  Great  Chieftain  to  Oh-na-gua-ga,  to  join  the  enter- 
prise, while  the  Tories  throughout  Westmoreland  simul- 
taneously repaired  to  the  enemy. 

1  '•  He  who  gooa  in  tlio  smokt-." — Col.  Stone. 


I 

LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  159 

Early  in  the  spring  of  1778,  Congress  had  been  apprised 
"by  General  Schuyler  of  the  threatened  attack,  but  so 
engaged  was  this  body  in  this  all-absorbing  struggle  for 
national  existence,  that  nothing  was,  or  could  be  done  for 
the  safety  of  Wyoming  until  March  16,  1778,  when  it  was 
resolved  "that  one  full  company  of  foot  be  raised"  here 
for  its  defense.  This  really  furnished  no  assistance,  as 
the  men  were  compelled  "to  find  their  arms,  accoutre- 
ments, and  blankets"  from  the  exhausted  resources  of 
the  interior. 

Congress  has  been  censured  by  the  historian  in  no  flat- 
tering terms,  for  not  recalling  to  Wyoming  the  absent 
soldiers  under  Captains  Durkee  and  Ransom  ;  but  it  must 
be  remembered  that  the  remnant  of  Washington's  army 
was  retreating  before  the  superior  and  exulting  forces  of 
the  British,  and  had  not  its  exhausted  strength  been 
invigorated  sufficiently  by  re-enforcements  to  check  and 
drive  back  the  invaders,  it  is  impossible  to  estimate  the 
consequences  to  the  country  to-day.  Independence  would 
have  been  retarded,  and  possibly  postponed  forever. 

In  May,  1778,  the  first  life  was  taken  in  Westmoreland, 
near  Tunkhannock,  by  the  Indians,  who  each  day  became 
more  defiant  and  numerous.  A  day  or  two  afterward,  a 
scouting  party  of  six  persons  were  fired  upon,  a  few  miles 
farther  down  the  river,  by  a  body  of  savages  lurking 
along  the  war-path  ;  two  whites  were  wounded,  and  one 
fatally,  when,  springing  into  their  canoe,  they  escaped 
down  the  Susquehanna.  Alarm  spread  throughout  the 
entire  settlement.  Persons  living  along  the  Lackawanna 
at  Capoose,  apparently  remote  from  danger  reaching  even 
the  outer  towns,  either  deserted  their  homes  and  sought 
protection  in  the  forts,  or  fled  to  the  parent  State  for 
greater  security.  The  terror  of  the  inhabitants,  already 
wrought  up  to  a  fearful  pitch,  was  still  increased  by  an 
event  simple  in  its  character,  yet  tragic  in  its  meaning. 

"Two  Indians,  formerly  residents  of  Wyoming,  and 
acquainted  with  the  people,  came  down  with  their  squaws 


160  HISTORY  or  THE 

on  a  visit,  professing  warm  friendship ;  but  suspicions 
existed  that  they  were  spies,  and  directions  were  given 
that  they  should  be  carefully  watched.  An  old  compan- 
ion of  one  of  them,  with  more  than  Indian  cunning,  pro- 
fessing his  attachment  to  the  natives,  gave  his  visitor 
drink  after  drink  of  his  favorite  rum,  when  in  the  con- 
fidence and  the  fullness  of  his  maudlin  heart,  he  avowed 
that  his  people  were  prepared  to  cut  off  the  settlement ; 
the  attack  to  be  made  soon,  and  that  they  had  come  down 
to  see  and  report  how  things  were.  The  squaws  were 
dismissed,  but  the  two  Indians  were  arrested  and  confined 
in  Forty  Fort."  * 

Men  heard  this  intelligence  with  lips  compressed  and 
determined,  and  at  once  prepared  to  receive  those  with 
whom  they  were  so  soon  to  converse  from  the  throat 
of  the  musket.  Every  instrument  of  death  was  examined 
and  fitted  for  immediate  use.  Guns  were  repaired  and 
fitted  with  new  flints,  bayonets  were  sharpened,  bullets 
molded,  powder  made  and  distributed,  and  every  man 
and  boy  able  to  shoulder  a  musket,  fell  into  the  ranks  of 
a  new  militia  company  formed  by  Captain  Dethic  Hewit, 
or  joined  the  daily  train-bands,  expecting  the  latest  mes- 
senger to  herald  the  approach  of  the  invaders.  Two  de- 
serters from  the  British  army,  one  by  the  name  of  Pike, 
from  Canada,  and  the  other  a  sergeant  named  Boyd,  from 
Boston,  Miner  relates,  "  were  particularly  useful  in  train- 
ing the  militia." 

While  these  preparations  were  being  made  along  the 
excited  valley,  beyond  succor  offered  by  Connecticut, 
and  withheld  by  Pennsylvania,  the  Indians,  Tories,  and 
British,  darkened  the  waters  of  the  Susquehanna  at 
Ta-hi-o-ga  with  a  fleet  of  rafts,  river-boats,  and  canoes, 
preparatory  to  a  descent  upon  the  "  Large  Plains." 

In  all  the  wide  expanse  of  territory,  within  the  limits 

of  Westmoreland — about  seventy  miles  square — there  was 

» 

1  Miner's  History. 


LACKAWANNA  VALLEY.  161 

no  larger  field-piece  than  the  old  flint  musket,  with,  the 
exception  of  a  single  cannon  at  the  Wilkes  Barre  Fort. 
This  was  a  four-pounder,  of  no  use,  as  no  suitable  balls 
were  in  the  settlement,  and  had  been  brought  into  the 
colony  merely  for  an  alarm-gun  in  the  Yankee  and  Pen- 
nymite  war.  The  force  of  the  Americans,  without  appro- 
priate arms,  discipline,  or  strength,  amounted  to  about 
four  hundred  persons,  to  resist  the  attack  of  nearly  four 
times  their  number. 

The  enemy,  numbering  about  four  hundred  British 
provincials,  six  or  seven  hundred  Seneca  and  Mohawk 
Indians,  in  paint  and  war-costume,  familiar  with  every 
part  of  Wyoming,  a  large  body  of  Tories  gathered  from 
afar,  commanded  by  Colonel  John  Butler,  a  British  officer, 
and  accompanied  by  the  notorious  Brant,  an  Iroquois 
chief,  left  their  rendezvous  on  Tioga  River,  descended 
the  Susquehanna  below  the  mouth  of  Bowman's  Creek, 
near  Tunkhannock,  about  twenty  miles  above  the  head 
of  the  Valley  of  Wyoming,  where  they  landed  on  the 
west  bank  of  the  river.  Here,  in  a  deep,  sharp  curve 
in  the  river,  they  moored  their  boats,  marching  across  a 
rugged  spur  of  the  mountain,  thus  shortening  the  distance 
a  number  of  miles.  On  the  30th  of  June,  just  at  the  edge 
of  the  evening,  they  arrived  on  the  western  mountain,  a 
little  distance  above  the  Tory  fort  of  Wintermoot'  s.  This 
fort,  standing  about  one  mile  below  Fort  Jenkins,  prob- 
ably owed  its  inception  to  some  ulterior  design  of  the 
British  and  Tories,  whom  it  served  so  well.  From  Fort 
Jenkins,  eight  persons  having  neither  notice  nor  suspicion 
of  the  proximity  of  the  enemy,  had  gone  up  the  valley 
into  Exeter  to  work  upon  their  farms,  a  little  distance 
from  the  fort,  taking  with  them  their  trusty  and  ever- 
attending  weapons  of  defense,  with  their  agricultural 
utensils.  While  unsuspectingly  engaged  at  their  work, 
which  they  were  about  closing  for  the  day,  they  were 
surrounded  by  a  portion  of  the  invading  army,  with  a 
view  of  making  them  prisoners,  so  that  the  British  But- 


162  HISTORY    OF    THE 

ler  might  learn  the  actual  state  and  strength  of  the  Wyo- 
ming people. 

Surprised  but  not  intimidated  by  the  fearful  odds 
against  them,  they  chose  to  die  by  the  bullet  rather  than 
risk  the  hatchet  or  the  torturing  scalping  knife  brandished 
before  them.  They  fought  for  a  short  time,  killing  five 
of  the  enemy,  three  Tories  and  tAvo  Indians,  when  four 
of  their  own  number  fell,  and  were  hacked  into  shreds 
by  the  exasperated  savages ;  three  were  taken  alive, 
while  a  single  boy  leaped  into  the  river,  and,  aided  by 
the  gray  twilight  of  evening,  was  enabled  to  escape,  amid 
a  hundred  pursuing  bullets.  One  of  the  slain  was  a  son 
of  the  barbarous  Queen  Esther,  who  accompanied  the 
expedition  with  her  tribe,  and  whose  cruelties  at  the 
bloody  rock,  inspired  with  greater  atrocity  from  the  recent 
loss  of  her  offspring,  forever  connects  her  name  with 
infamy. 

Two  Indians  who  were  watching  the  mutilated  remains 
of  the  dead,  for  the  purpose  of  killing  or  capturing  the 
friends  who  might  seek  the  bodies  at  night,  were  shot  by 
Zebulon  Marcy,  from  the  Lackawanna  side  of  the  river. 
For  several  years,  Mr.  Marcy  was  hunted  and  watched  by 
a  brother  of  one  of  the  Indians  swearing  that  he  would 
have  revenge.1  Although  Marcy' s  house  was  the  only 
one  left  standing  along  the  Lackawanna  in  1778,  from 
some  unexplained  Indian  freak,  he  was  never  harmed  by 
them. 

Fort  Jenkins,  thus  bereft  of  its  protectors,  capitulated 
the  same  evening  to  Captain  Caldwell,  while  the  united 
forces  of  Butler  and  Brant  bivouacked  at  the  friendly 
Tory  quarters  of  Fort  Wintermoot.  No  sooner  did  the 
dull  report  of  musketry,  echoing  from  under  Campbell's 
Ledge  down  the  valley,  denote  the  presence  of  the  foe, 
than  the  real  critical  position  of  the  settlement  at  the 
mercy  of  the  coming  wave,  was  appreciated  in  all  its 


Miner. 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  163 

sternness.  Men  not  accustomed  to  scour  the  woods  for 
miles  in  the  vicinity  of  their  homes  to  discover  Indian 
trails,  and  give  warning  to  their  neighbors  and  families  of 
suspicious  approach  or  retreat,  would  have  shrunk  from 
the  fierce-coming  struggle  with  dismay ;  but  these  self- 
reliant  men  left  the  scythe  in  the  swath,  the  plow  in  the 
furrow,  and,  gathering  up  the  weak  and  weeping  ones, 
hurried  them  to  Forty  Fort.  This  fort  stood  on  the  west 
bank  of  the  river,  below  JVIonockonock  Island,  and  three 
miles  above  Wyoming  Fort,  where,  in  a  short  time,  were 
collected  the  principal  forces  of  Wyoming  Valley,  con- 
sisting of  three  hundred  and  sixty-eight  men,  very  indif- 
ferently armed  and  equipped.  On  the  Lackawanna  side 
of  the  river,  at  Pittston,  nearly  opposite  Wintermoot's, 
Fort  Brown  had  been  erected ;  this  was  garrisoned  by 
the  settlers  from  the  lower  portion  of  the  Lackawanna 
and  Pittston,  numbering  about  forty  men,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Captain  Blanchard.  Another  company  was  at 
Capoose. 

By  the  aid  of  spies,  full  of  stratagem  and  daring,  con- 
tinually reconnoitering  the  unhar vested  plains  upon 
either  side  of  the  river,  Col.  John  Butler  learned  how 
completely  at  his  mercy  was  the  entire  valley,  unless  re- 
enforcements  hoped  for  by  the  Connecticut  people,  and 
expected  from  the  main  army,  should  arrive  and  drive 
back  his  mongrel  horde.  Already  were  the  two  upper 
forts  in  his  possession,  with  all  the  canoes  and  means  of 
crossing  the  river,  but  not  wishing  to  bring  his  Indians 
into  the  excitement  of  a  general  battle,  where,  becoming 
infuriated  and  ungovernable  after  a  victory,  scenes  of 
torture  and  bloodshed  might  be  enacted  too  revolting  to 
witness,  and  yet  too  general  and  wide- spread  to  check,  he 
sent  one  of  the  prisoners  taken  in  Exeter  to  Col.  Zebulon 
Butler,  on  the  morning  of  the  day  of  battle,  accompanied 
by  a  Tory  and  an  Indian,  demanding  the  immediate  sur- 
render, not  only  of  the  fort  he  commanded,  but  of  all 
others  in  the  valley,  with  all  the  public  property,  as  well 


164  II18TOKY    OF    THE 

as  the  militia  company  of  Capt.  Hewit,  as  prisoners  of 
war.  It  can  be  said  to  his  credit  that  he  also  suggested 
to  the  commander  of  Forty  Fort  the  propriety  of  destroy- 
ing all  intoxicating  drinks,  provided  these  considerate 
terms  were  rejected;  "for,"  said  the  British  Butler, 
"drunken  savages  can't  be  controlled."  The  acceptance 
of  these  apparently  exacting,  but  really  liberal  terms,  was 
urged  by  some,  in  hopes  that  the  tide  of  slaughter  might 
be  stayed ;  the  majority  opposed  it,  and  the  messenger 
was  sent  away  with  this  decision. 

A  council  of  war  was  immediately  held  in  the  fort. 
While  a  few  hoped  that  the  absent  military  companies 
would  arrive,  and  furnish  re-enforcements  able  to  offer 
battle  and  expel  the  enemy  from  Wyoming,  if  a  few  days 
intervened  ;  others  more  rash  and  impulsive  replied  that 
the  force  concentrated  in  the  fort  could  march  out  upon 
the  plains,  where  the  enemy  were  encamped,  and,  being 
familiar  with  the  ground,  could  surprise  and  possibly 
capture  them  ;  that  many  of  their  homes  already  lit  by 
the  torch,  their  crops  destroyed — that  the  murder  of  the 
Hardings  at  Fort  Jenkins  was  but  the  prelude  to  the 
drama  about  to  redden  Wyoming,  unless  interrupted  by 
prompt  offensive  measures,  and  that  tJtey  were  anxious 
and  determined  to  fight.  Unfortunately  this  counsel  pre- 
vailed. 

With  the  colonial  development  in  Westmoreland  had 
grown  the  love  of  rum.1  So  fixed,  so  general,  in  fact,  had 
become  this  pernicious  and  unmanning  habit — so  essential 
was  whisky  regarded  in  its  sanative  and  commercial 
aspect,  that  one  of  the  first  buildings  of  &  public  character 
erected  in  the  colony,  after  a  stockade  or  fort,  was  a  still 
or  brew  house.  The  almost  universal  custom  of  drinking 
prevailed  at  this  time  to  an  alarming  extent,  not  only 
throughout  the  Lacka wanna  and  Wyoming  settlements, 
but  along  the  whole  frontier  of  upper  Pennsylvania. 

1  In  1 78:'.  the  Pennsylvania  troops  stationed  at  Wyoming  were  supplied  with  li  2| 
Hill  of  Liquor"  to  one  pound  of  bread. — Pennsylvania  Archives,  1783,  p.  118. 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  165 

"It  being  known  that  among  the  stores  there  was  a 
quantity  of  whisky,  Col.  Butler  desired  it  might  be  de- 
stroyed, for  he  feared  if  the  Indians  became  intoxicated  he 
could  not  restrain  them.  The  barrels  were  rolled  to  the 
bank,  the  heads  knocked  in,  and  the  liquor  emptied  into 
the  river."  1 

The  venerable  and  yet  intelligent  Mrs.  Deborah  Bedford, 
one  of  the  last  survivors  of  the  Wyoming  massacre,  in- 
formed the  writer  in  1857  that,  "in  accordance  with  the 
request  of  Col.  Butler,  all  the  liquor  in  the  fort  was  rolled 
out  and  emptied  into  the  Susquehanna,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  a  single  barrel  of  whisky,  spared  for  medicinal 
purposes.  The  head  of  this  was  knocked  in  during  the 
council  of  war;"  and  as  "the  debates  are  said  to  have 
been  conducted  with  much  warmth  and  animation,"  s  it 
is  more  than  possible  that  the  inspiring  influence  of  this 
barrel  contributed,  to  a  certain  extent,  toward  the  result 
of  the  deliberations.  "  A  hard  fight  was  expected  up  the 
valley,"  continued  the  reliable  lady,  from  whose  young, 
anxious  eye  nothing  escaped  in  the  fort,  "and  as  the 
drum  and  fife  struck  up  an  animating  air,  while  the 
soldiers  marched  out  the  fort  one  by  one,  a  gourd-shell, 
floating  in  the  inviting  beverage,  was  filled,  and  passed  to 
each  comrade,  and  drank." 

Motives,  alike  natural  and  delicate,  have  hitherto  sup- 
pressed evidence  showing  that  if  some  of  the  soldiers, 
brave  as  they  might  have  been,  andwrere,  had  not  "taken 
a  little  too  much,"  3  their  ideas  of  their  own  strength  were 
singularly  confused  and  exalted.  However  pleasant  it 
might  be  to  pass  by  this  great  error  of  the  times — an  error 
which  rendered  certain  and  merciless  the  fate  of  Wyoming 
— with  the  same  studied  silence  and  charity  observed  by 
others,  justice  to  the  living,  uttering  no  censure,  and  to 
the  dead,  needing  no  defense,  demands  a  truthful  record. 


5  Miner's  History  of  Wyoming,  p.  232. 

*  Chapman's  History  of  Wyoming,  p.  122.          *  Peck's  Wyoming,  pp.  364-5. 


166  HI8TOBY    OF    THE 

Col.  George  Dorrance,  an  officer  whose  prudent  counsels 
to  remain  in  the  fort  were  disregarded,  was  taunted  with 
cowardice  because  of  his  counter-advice  against  this  death- 
march  up  the  valley. 

The  forces  of  Brant  and  Col.  John  Butler  were  at 
Wintermoot's  Fort,  opposite  Pittston.  To  silently  reach 
this  point,  and,  protected  by  the  large  pine-trees  shelter- 
ing the  plain,  spring  on  the  enemy  unawares,  was  th« 
plan  finally  adopted.  The  little  band,  on  the  afternoon 
of  the  3d  of  July,  numbering  about  350  of  the  sturdiest 
remaining  settlers,  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Zebulon 
Butler,  left  the  fort  amid  the  prayers  of  dear  and  devoted 
kindred.  Old  men,  whose  hands  were  tremulous  and 
unsteady ;  young  ones,  unskilled  in  years — marched 
side  by  side  to  the  place  of  conflict.  So  great  the  emer- 
gency at  this  time,  so  much  to  be  won  or  lost  by  the 
coming  battle,  that  none  remained  in  the  fort  save  women 
and  children.  Rapidly  up  along  the  west  bank  of  the 
river,  Col.  Z.  Butler  cautiously  led  his  forces  within  half 
a  mile  of  Wintermoot's.  Here  he  halted  a  few  minutes, 
and  sent  forward  two  volunteers  to  reconnoiter  the  position 
and  strength  of  the  enemy  ;  these  were  fired  upon  by  the 
opposing  scouts,  who,  like  the  main  body  of  the  British, 
were  not  only  apprised  by  Indian  runners  of  the  depart- 
ure of  the  Yankees  from  Forty  Fort,  but  were  prepared 
to  give  them  a  murderous  welcome.  As  the  Americans 
approached  the  British  soldiers  and  painted  savages, 
Wintermoot's  Fort,  which  had  served  its  intended  mis- 
chievous purpose,  was  set  on  fire  by  the  Tories  for  reasons 
unknown.  The  British  colonel  promptly  formed  his 
forces  into  line  of  battle  ;  the  Provincials  and  Tories  being 
placed  in  front  toward  the  river,  while  the  morass  at  the 
right  concealed  vast  numbers  of  the  dusky  warriors  under 
Brant  and  the  drunken  Queen. 

Among  the  tall  pines  unmelted  from  the  plain,  Colonel 
Zebulon  Butler  placed  his  men  so  as  better  to  resist  the 
first  attack  of  the  enemy,  preparing  to  begin  the  strife. 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  167 

Colonels  Butler  and  Dorrance  each  urged  the  soldiers  to 
meet  the  first  shock  with  firmness,  as  their  own  lives  and 
homes  depended  on  the  issue.  Hardly  had  the  words 
rang  along  the  line,  before  the  bullets  of  the  enemy,  pour- 
ing in  from  a  thousand  muskets,  began  to  thin  the  ranks 
of  the  Connecticut  party. 

"  About  four  in  the  afternoon  the  battle  began  ;  Col.  Z. 
Butler  ordered  his  men  to  fire,  and  at  each  discharge  to 
advance  a  step.  Along  the  whole  line  the  discharges 
were  rapid  and  steady.  It  was  evident,  on  the  more  open 
ground  the  Yankees  were  doing  most  execution.  As  our 
men  advanced,  pouring  in  their  platoon  fires  with  great 
vivacity,  the  British  line  gave  way,  in  spite  of  all  their 
officers'  efforts  to  prevent  it.  The  Indian  flanking  party 
on  our  right,  kept  up  from  their  hiding-places  a  galling 
fire.  Lieut.  Daniel  Gore  received  a  ball  through  the 
left  arm.  'Captain  Durkee,'  said  he,  'look  sharp  for  the 
Indians  in  those  bushes.'  Captain  D.  stepped  to  the 
bank  to  look,  preparatory  to  making  a  charge  and  dis- 
lodging them,  when  he  fell.  On  the  British  Butler's  right, 
his  Indian  warriors  were  sharply  engaged.  They  seemed 
to  be  divided  into  six  bands,  for  a  yell  would  be  raised  at 
one  end  of  the  line,  taken  up,  and  carried  through,  six 
distinct  bodies  appearing  at  each  time  to  repeat  the  cry. 
As  the  battle  waxed  warmer,  that  fearful  yell  was  renewed 
again  and  again,  with  more  and  more  spirit.  It  appeared 
to  be  at  once  their  animating  shout,  and  their  signal  of 
communication.  As  several  fell  near  Col.  Dorrance,  one 
of  his  men  gave  way  ;  '  Stand  up  to  your  work,  sir,'  said 
he,  firmly  but  coolly,  and  the  soldier  resumed  his  place. 

"  For  half  an  hour  a  hot  fire  had  been  given  and  sus- 
tained, when  the  vastly  superior  numbers  of  the  enemy 
began  to  develop  its  power.  The  Indians  had  thrown  into 
the  swamp  a  large  force,  which  now  completely  outflanked 
our  left.  It  was  impossible  it  should  be  otherwise  :  that 
wing  was  thrown  into  confusion.  Col.  Dennison  gave 
orders  that  the  company  of  Whittlesey  should  wheel  back, 


168  HISTORY    OF    THE 

so  as  to  form  an  angle  with  the  main  line,  and  thus  pre- 
sent his  front  instead  of  flank,  to  the  enemy.  The  diffi- 
culty of  performing  evolutions,  by  the  bravest  militia,  on 
the  field,  under  a  hot  fire,  is  well  known.  On  the  attempt 
the  savages  rushed  in  with  horrid  yells.  Some  had  mis- 
taken the  order  to  fall  back,  as  one  to  retreat,  and  that 
word,  that  fatal  word,  ran  along  the  line.  Utter  confu- 
sion now  prevailed  on  the  1'eft.  Seeing  the  disorder,  and 
his  own  men  beginning  to  give  way,  Col.  Z.  Butler  threw 
himself  between  the  fires  of  the  opposing  ranks,  and  rode 
up  and  down  the  line  in  the  most  reckless  exposure. 

"  'Don't  leave  me,  my  children,  and  the  victory  is 
ours.'  But  it  was  too  late."  ' 

When  it  was  seen  that  defeat  had  come,  the  confusion 
became  general.  Some  fought  bravely  in  the  hopeless 
conflict,  and  fell  upon  the  battle-ground  bayonet-pierced  ; 
others  fled  in  wild  disorder  down  the  valley  toward 
Forty  Fort  or  Wilkes  Barre  without  their  guns,  pursued 
by  Indians  whose  belts  were  soon  reeking  with  warm 
scalps. 

"  A  portion  of  the  Indians'  flanking  party  pushed  for- 
ward in  the  rear  of  the  Connecticut  line,  to  cut  off  retreat 
from  Forty  Fort,  and  then  pressed  the  retreating  army 
toward  the  river.  Monockasy  Island  affording  the  only 
hope  of  crossing,  the  stream  of  flight  flowed  in  that  direc- 
tion through  fields  of  grain."3  The  Tories,  more  vindic- 
tive and  ferocious  if  possible  than  the  red-men,  hastened 
after  the  fugitives. 

Mr.  Carey  and  Judge  Hollenback  were  standing  side 
by  side  when  the  victorious  forces  of  the  enemy  appeared 
in  view ;  Carey  ran  with  the  speed  of  a  deer,  while 
Hollenback,  throwing  away  his  gun  and  stripping  to  the 
waist,  followed  him  toward  AVilkes  Barn1.  Being  thus 
divested  of  his  clothing  lie  was  enabled  to  leave  his 
weaker  comrade  in  the  rear,  swam  the  river  in  safety,  and 

1  Minor.  *  Ibid. 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  169 

was  the  first  to  tell  the  tale  of  defeat  to  the  village  of 
Wilkes  Barre,  then  consisting  of  twenty-three  houses. 
Carey  fled  to  the  river,  where,  under  its  deep-worn  bank 
he  found  shelter,  as  he  sank  too  exhausted  to  swim,  still 
retaining  his  musket.  He  heard  the  quick  footsteps  of 
the  fugitives,  and  as  they  were  plunging  in  the  water  to 
reach  Pittston  Fort,  saw  the  swift-sent  tomahawk  over- 
take many  a  neighbor  struggling  in  the  river  in  vain. 
Upon  the  bank  below  him,  three  soldiers  were  clubbed  to 
death  by  the  Tories.  His  own  musket  he  grasped  still 
more  firmly,  determined  to  sell  his  life  as  dearly  as  possi- 
ble, if  required  ;  escaping  detection,  he  swam  the  river  at 
night  and  escaped. 


MONOCASY   ISLAND,   FROM   THE   EAST   BANK   OK   THE   SUSQTTEHANIfA. 

Of  the  cruelties  practiced  by  the  Tories  and  Indians 
after  the  battle,  one  instance  will  suffice  to  illustrate.  A 
little  below  the  battle-ground  there  lay,  and  still  lies,. in 
the  divided  waters  of  the  Susquehanna,  an  island  green 
with  willows  and  wild  grass,  called  "Monockonock 
Island."  As  the  path  down  the  valley  swarmed  with 
warriors,  few  of  the  fleeing  settlers  pursued  it,  but 
scattered  through  the  fields.  Others  fled  to  this  island 
for  refuge.  This  was  perceived  by  the  Tories,  ruthless  in 
pursuit,  who  reaching  the  island  deliberately  wiped  their 
guns  dry  to  finish  the  murderous  drama.  "  One  of  them, 
with  his  loaded  gun,  soon  passed  close  by  one  of  these 
men  who  lay  concealed  from  his  view,  and  was  immedi- 
ately recognized  by  him  to  be  the  brother  of  his  com- 


170 


IIISTORY    OF    THE 


panion  who  was  concealed  near  him,  but  who  being  a 
Toiy,  had  joined  the  enemy.  He  passed  slowly  along, 
carefully  examining  every  covert,  and  directly  perceived 
his  brother  in  his  place  of  concealment.  He  suddenly 
stopped  and  said,  '  So  it  is  you,  is  it  ?'  His  brother,  finding 
that  he  was  discovered,  immediately  came  forward  a  few 
steps,  and  falling  on  his  kneek,  begged  him  to  spare  his  life, 
promising  him  to  live  with  him  and  serve  him,  and  even 
to  be  his  slave  as  long  as  he  lived,  if  he  would  only  spare 

his  life.  '  All  this  is 
miflhly  good,'  re- 
plied the  savage- 
hearted  brother  of 
the  supplicating  man, 
*  but  you  are  a  d — d 
rebel?  and  deliber- 
ately presenting  his 
rifle,  shot  him  dead 
on  the  spot."1  The 
name  of  the  fratricide 
Tory  was  John  Pen- 
cil, and  the  miserable 
wretch,  shunned  by 
the  Indians  whom  he  accompanied  to  Canada,  was  after- 
ward killed  and  devoured  in  the  Canadian  forest  by 
wolves.2  Such  was  the  spirit  of  the  Wyoming  massacre, 
and  such  was  the  doom  of  the  fratricide. 

After  the  pursuit  of  the  fugitives  had  ceased,  scenes  of 
torture  began.  Opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Lackawanna, 
and  almost  under  the  shadows  of  "Campbell's  Ledge," 
a  band  of  Indians,  wild  with  exultation,  had  gathered  their 
prisoners  in  a  circle,  stripped  of  their  clothing,  and  with 
sharpened  spears  drove  them  into  the  flames  of  a  large 
fire,  amidst  their  agonizing  cries  and  the  yells  of  the  infuri- 
ated savages.  On  the  battle-ground,  was  cleft  each  scalp 


Chapman's  History,  pp.  12-78.    '  See  Dr.  Peck's  Wyoming,  pp.  37-15. 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  171 

of  the  dying  and  the  dead,  before  the  bloody  work  was 
carried  to  "Bloody  Rock."  "This  celebrated  rock  is 
situated  east  of  a  direct  line  between  the  monument  and 
the  site  of  Fort  Winter-moot,  on  the  brow  of  the  high 
steep  bank  which  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  ancient 
bank  of  the  river.  The  rock  is  a  bowlder,  and  it  is  a 
sort  of  conglomerate,  principally  composed  of  quartz."1 
It  formerly  rose  some  two  feet  above  the  earth  but 
the  constant  attrition  of  the  frequent  visitor  desir- 
ing a  fragment  of  the  interesting  bowlder  to  carry 
away  as  a  relic,  has  scalped  or  shorn  it  almost  even 
with  the  ground.  Around  the  rock,  standing  distinctly 
out  on  the  plain,  otherwise  smooth  and  rockless,  some 
eighteen  of  the  prisoners  who  had  been  taken  under 
the  solemn  promise  of  quarter,  were  collected  and  sur- 
.ounded  by  a  ring  of  warriors  under  the  command  of 
^ueen  Esther.  In  the  battle  she  had  led  her  column  with 
more  than  Indian  bravery,  and  now  around  the  fatal  ring 
was  she  to  avenge  the  loss  of  her  first-born,  slain  in  the 
encounter  with  the  settlers,  at  the  head  of  the  valley,  a 
day  or  two  before.  Swinging  the  war-club  or  the  merci- 
less hatchet,  she  walked  around  the  dusky  ring,  and,  as 
suited  her  whim,  dashed  out  the  brains  of  the  unresisting 
prisoners.  Two  only  escaped  by  superhuman  efforts.  The 
bodies  of  fourteen  or  fifteen  were  afterward  found  around 
this  rock,  scalped  and  shockingly  mangled.  Nine  more 
were  found  in  a  similar  circle  some  distance  above.2 
About  160  of  the  Connecticut  people  perished  in  the 
battle  and  massacre  ;  140  escaped.  The  surviving  settlers 
fled  toward  the  Delaware.  Before  them  frowned  the 
foodless  forest,  since  known  as  the  "  Shades  of  Death  ;" 
behind,  save  the  low  wail  of  the  scattered  fugitives, 
clambering  up  the  mountain  side  by  the  light  of  their  burn- 
ing homes,  all  was  silence  and  desolation.  The  forest- 
dwellers  had  cruelly  revenged  their  wrongs  ;  the  Tory  by 

1  Peck's  Wyoming,  p.  284.  *  Miner. 


172  HISTORY    OF    THE 

his  club  and  bayonet  had  surpassed  the  wild  man  in  fero- 
cious instinct — the  British  soldier,  led  hither  by  command, 
turned  from  the  unsoldier-like  scenes  of  the  day  and  night 
with  aversion,  and  all  sank  exhausted  on  the  grounds  of 
the  old  Indian  empire  for  repose. 

The  Pittston  forts  surrendered  to  Colonel  J.  Butler 
early  on  the  morning  of  the  fourth,  upon  the  following 
terms  :— 

"Articles  of  Capitulation  for  three  Forts  at  Lacuwan- 
ack,  4th  July,  1778.  Art,  1st.— That  the  different  Com- 
manders of  the  said  Forts  do  immediately  deliver  them 
up,  with  all  the  arms,  ammunition,  and  stores,  in  the  said 
forts."  "  2d. — Major  Butler  promises  that  the  lives  of 
the  men,  women,  and  children  be  preserved  intire."  l 

These  terms  were  honorably  complied  with,  and  not  a 
person  in  Pittston  was  molested  by  the  Indians ;  all  the 
prisoners  in  the  forts  were  marked  with  black  war-paint, 
which  exempted  them  from  immediate  harm.  Forty  Fort 
was  surrendered  the  same  day  to  Major  John  Butler. 

Five  days  after  the  battle,  Colonel  Butler  retired  from 
Wyoming  with  his  forces,  so  elated  with  his  success  that 
he  reported  to  his  government  that  he  had  "taken  227 
scalps  and  only  five  prisoners,"  "taken  eight  palisades, 
(six)  forts,  and  burned  about  one  thousand  dwelling 
houses,  all  their  mills,  etc.,"  having,  "on  our  side  one 
Indian,  two  Rangers  killed,  and  eight  prisoners  wounded." 
"  We  have  also  killed  and  drove  off  about  one  thousand 
head  of  horned  cattle,  and  sheep  and  swine  in  great  num- 
bers." 2 

After  Butler  had  gone  northward,  a  party  of  rangers 
and  Indians  whom  he  had  sent,  went  "to  the  Delaware 
to  destroy  a  small  settlement  there,  and  to  bring  oft'  pris- 
oners." These,  after  remaining  a  few  days  at  AVyoming 
for  scalps  and  plunder,  visited  the  Lackawanna  Valley 


1  Copied  from  Tier  Majesty's  Stnto  Paper  Doc.  in  London.     Miner. 
'See  Butler's  Report.     Peck's  Wyoming,  pp.  62-6.  '  Ibid. 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  173 

on  their  way  to  the  Paupack  and  Delaware.  Wyoming, 
with  the  exception  of  a  few  houses  around  Wilkes  Barre 
fort,  was  depopulated,  and  presented  one  dark  picture 
of  conflagration  and  waste.  Up  the  Lackawanna,  every 
house  and  barn,  with  the  single  exception  of  Marcy's, 
was  burned  to  the  ground,  and  every  family  that  could 
escape  fled  on  foot  toward  Stroudsburg  for  safety. 

Six  miles  up  the  Lackawanna,  a  small  stream  called 
Key's  or  Kieser's  Creek,  emerges  from  a  long  line  of  wil- 
lows, where  the  savages  overtook  and  shot  and  scalped 
two  men  by  the  name  of  Leach  and  St.  John,  who  were 
removing  their  families  with  ox-teams  from  the  smoking 
valley  below.  "One  of  them,"  says  Miner,  "had  a 
child  in  his  arms,  which,  with  strange  inconsistency,  the 
Indian  took  up  and  handed  to  the  mother,  all  covered 
with  the  father' s  blood.  Leaving  the  women  in  the  wagon 
unhurt,  they  took  the  scalps  of  their  husbands,  and  de- 
parted." At  Capoose,  Mr.  Hickman,  attending  to  his 
crops,  unconscious  of  danger  so  near,  was  murdered  by 
the  same  band,  as  were  his  wife  and  child.  His  log  cabin 
was  burned  to  the  ground. 

Isaac  Tripp,  a  Mr.  Hocksey  and  Keys  were  captured 
and  carried  from  the  Capoose  into  the  forest  of  Abington 
at  this  time.  Tripp,  who  had  hitherto,  in  his  intercourse 
with  the  Indians,  shown  them  kindness,  was  painted  and 
released,  while  his  two  companions  were  led  out  of  the 
path,  tomahawked,  and  left  unburied  in  the  woods  near 
Clark's  Green. 

No  white  person  was  left  alive  in  the  entire  valley  in 
1778,  after  the  massacre,  nor  did  any  settlers  venture  to 
return  to  the  Susquehanna  or  the  Lackawanna  to  bury 
the  dead  or  gather  the  crops,  until  some  three  months 
afterward. 

In  September,  Colonel  Hartley  was  sent  up  into  the 
Indian  country  to  chastise  them,  while  the  grain  was  being 
secured.  He  arrived  at  Wyalusing,  September  28,  with 
his  men  worn  down,  and  his  "Whiskey  and  Flour  all 


174  HISTORY    OF   THE 

gone."1  "  In  lonely  woods  and  groves  we  found  the 
Haunts  and  Lurking  Places  of  the  Savage  Murderers  who 
had  desolated  our  Frontier.  We  saw  the  Huts  where 
they  had  dressed  and  dried,  the  scalps  of  the  helpless 
women  &  Children  who  had  fell  in  their  hands."2 

In  October,  "  Three  persons  were  killed  near  Wyoming, 
and  another  was  sent  in  with  his  life,  scalped  to  liis  Eye- 
brows almost."1 

No  single  massacre  in  America  during  the  Revolution, 
awakened  throughout  the  whole  land  a  sensation  so  uni- 
versal and  profound  as  did  this.  General  Washington, 
pained  by  the  sanguinary  blow  struck  at  Wyoming,  or- 
dered General  Sullivan,  in  1779,  to  visit  and  lay  waste 
the  Indian  country  along  the  northwestern  frontier,  from 
whence  much  of  its  force  had  come.  The  expedition, 
however,  being  retarded  for  a  time  from  various  causes, 
and  the  numerous  massacres  being  still  unavenged,  a 
proposition  was  made  to  the  authorities  of  Pennsylvania, 
April,  1779,  by  William  McClay,  to  hunt  the  Indians  out 
of  tlv>  Lackawanna  and  Wyoming  valleys  with  horses 
and  doffft.  lie  says  "that  a  single  troop  of  Light  Horse 
attended  by  dogs,  would  destroy  more  Indians  than  five 
thousand  men  stationed  in  forts  along  the  Frontiers."4 
This  system  of  warfare,  however,  was  never  adopted 
here. 

Gen.  Sullivan  proceeded  to  the  very  heart  of  the  Indian 
empire  around  the  lakes  in  July,  1779,  and  after  burning 
eighteen  of  their  villages,5  destroying  a  large  number  of 
warriors,  and  a  vast  quantity  of  corn,  peach  orchards,  &c., 
returned  to  Wyoming,  October  7,  with  the  loss  of  only 
forty  men. 

"The  army  marched  to  Lackawanna,  distant  9  miles 
from  AVyoming.  (Wilkes  Barre.)  This  place  contains 
two  hundred  acres  of  excellent  level  land,  and  beautifully 

'  Pa.  Arch.,  1778,  p.  6.  'Ibid.  *  Ibid.,  p.  16. 

4  Hi'1.,  1779,  p.  357.  "See  Pennsylvania  Archives,  1779,  p.  709. 


LACKA  WANNA   VALLEY. 

situated,  having  a  fine  creek  bordering  on  the  east  side  of 
the  river  in  front,  and  a  large  mountain  in  the  rear,  which 
forms  this  place  a  triangular  form." l 

The  following  account  of  an  extraordinary  adventure 
and  escape  of  a  messenger,  coming  from  Sullivan' s  camp 
to  Easton,  illustrates  how  little  pleasure  there  was  in 
traveling  then,  even  in  the  rear  of  his  army : — 

Sunday  Morning. 

Sullivan's  Stores,  1st  July,  1779. 
°  > 
This  will  inform  you  of  the  most  singular  event  that 

perhaps  you  ever  met  with. — One  of  my  Expresses,  (Viz1,) 
James  Cook  on  his  return  from  Weyoming  this  day,  about 
the  middle  of  the  afternoon,  in  the  Swamp  was  fired  upon 
by  the  Indians  &  Tories — he  supposes  between  Thirty  & 
Fifty  Shot.  One  Shot  went  thro'  his  Canteen,  one  thro' 
his  Saddle,  one  thro'  his  Hunting  Shirt,  one  was  shot  into 
his  Horse.  Two  Indians  or  Tories  being  yet  before  him, 
both  discharged  their  Pieces  at  him,  threw  down  their 
Firelocks  with  a  determination  to  Tomahawk  him — ad- 
vanced within  Eight  Yards  of  him,  at  which  Time  he, 
with  a  Bravery  peculiar  to  himself,  fired  upon  them, 
killed  one  of  them  on  the  spot  and  wounded  the  other, 
notwithstanding  he  threw  his  Tomahawk  at  the  Express, 
missed  him,  but  cut  the  Horse  very  deep  upon  the 
Shoulder.  He  got  hold  of  Cook,  thought  to  get  him  from 
his  Horse,  tore  his  Shirt,  which  is  stained  much  with  the 
Indian's  Blood;  the  Horse  being  fretted  by  his  Wound 
raised  upon  his  hind  Feet,  Trampled  the  Indian  or  Torie 
under  him,  who  roared  terribly,  at  which  time  Cook  got 
clear ;  the  other  Indians  on  seeing  him  get  off,  raised  the 
Whoop  as  if  all  Hell  was  broke  loose.  He  supposes  he 
rode  the  Horse  afterwards  near  four  Miles,  but  by  the 
loss  of  Blood  began  to  Stagger,  when  he  alighted,  took 

1  Efsport  of  Geo.  Grant,  Serg.  Maj.  to  ye  3d  Reg.  of  N.  J.,  under  Maj.  Sullivan, 
in  1779. 


176  HISTORY    OF    THE 

off  his  Saddle  &  Letters,  ran  about  a  Mile  on  foot,  where 
he  fortunately  found  a  stray  Continental  Horse,  which  lie 
mounted  &  rode  to  this  Place. 

It  is  easy  to  account  for  his  getting  the  Horse  as  there 
are  numbers  of  them  astray  about  the  Swamp.  Mr  Cook's 
Firelock  was  loaded  with  a  Bullet  &  Nine  Buck  shot,  & 
the  Indians  being  close  together  when  he  fired  is  the 
reason  why  the  one  might  be  killed  and  the  other 
Wounded. 

From  a  Perfect  knowledge  of  the  mans  Sobriety,  In- 
tegrity and  Soldierism,  no  part  of  this  need  be  doubted. 
I  am  sir, 

Your  most  ob*  Humble  serv1, 
(Copy.)  ALEX'R  PATTERSON. 

Directed, — To  His  Excellency  Joseph  Reed,  Esqr,  Present. 

Smarting  under  the  chastisement  given  by  General 
Sullivan,  bands  of  Indians,  which  had  returned,  dexterous 
and  wary,  prowled  around  the  cabin  of  the  valley  hus- 
bandman, and  their  tomahawks  struck  alike  the  laborer 
in  the  field  and  the  child  in  the  cradle ;  and  yet,  in  spite 
of  such  adverse  danger,  besetting  every  hour  with  blighted 
hopes  and  ruined  prospects,  the  settlement  began  to  fill 
up  with  many  of  the  former  returning  occupants. 

In  the  fall  of  1778,  the  region  of  Capoose,  depopulated 
so  completely  of  every  white  inhabitant,  began  to  receive 
back  some  of  the  more  resolute  of  its  former  denizens.  A 
small  portion  of  the  fall  crop,  escaping  destruction  by  mere 
accident  or  caprice,  was  thus  secured,  which,  by  the  aid 
of  bear-meat  and  venison,  easily  obtained,  as  every 
pioneer  was  a  hunter,  enabled  them  to  pass  through  the, 
winter  with  comparative  comfort,  unmolested  by  Tories 
or  Indians.  In  March,  however,  1779,  the  last  predatory 
band,  hoping  for  conquest,  yet  rejoicing  in  the  ruin  they 
had  wrought,  after  attacking  \Vilkes  Barre  in  vain,  turned 
up  the  old  Lackawanna  to  the  settlement  at  Capoose. 
Isaac  Tripp  was  shot  in  his  own  house  on  the  flats,  and 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  177 

three  men,  named  Jones,  Avery,  and  Lyons,  were  carried 
away  in  the  forest,  and  never  heard  of  afterward. 


GENERAL    HISTORY   RESUMED. 

Instead  of  the  repose  hoped  for  by  the  inhabitants  of 
Wyoming  at  the  close  of  the  American  Revolution,  the 
temporarily  suspended  animosities  between  Pennsylvania 
and  Connecticut,  gathering  strength  by  the  intervention 
of  the  Great  War,  broke  out  afresh  with  all  the  venom 
and  violence  begotten  by  a  dispute  involving  every  im- 
pulse of  passion  and  every  consideration  of  selfishness. 

Connecticut,  through  its  General  Assembly,  "holden  at 
Hartford,  Oct.  9,  1783,  asserted  its  undoubted  and  exclu- 
sive right  of  jurisdiction  &  Pre-emption  to  all  the  Lands 
lying  West  of  the  Western  limits  of  the  State  of  Penn- 
sylvania, &  East  of  the  Mississippi  River,  and  extending 
througout  from  the  Latitude  41°  to  Latitude  42°  2  north, 
by  virtue  of  the  Charter  granted  by  King  Charles  the 
second  to  the  late  Colony  of  Connecticut  bearing  date  the 
25  day  of  April,  A.  D.  1662,"  *  while  it  relinquished  all 
claim  to  Wyoming  after  the  unexpected  decision  of  the 
Commissioners  at  Trenton. 

Soon  after  the  promulgation  of  the  Trenton  Decree, 
"two  boxes  of  musket  cartridges,  and  two  hundred  rifle- 
flints"  were  ordered  to  Wyoming  with  Northampton 
militia,  to  look  after  persons  not  readily  acquiescing  in  a 
decision  known  to  be  adverse  to  every  principle  of  com- 
mon sense  and  equity.  Because  the  inhabitants  refused 
to  be  ground  into  ashes  unmurmuringly,  they  were  re- 
ported "wrangling"  and  full  of  a  "Letegious  Spirit."2 

Toward  the  Lacka wanna  people,  more  defenseless  and 
exposed,  because  fewer  in  number,  proceedings  were  in- 
stituted by  the  Pennymites  more  tyrannical  and  oppress- 

1  See  Pennsylvania  Archives,  1783,  p.  116.  *  Ibid.,  pp.  47-9. 


178  HISTORY    OF    THE 

ive  than  elsewhere,  simply  from  the  fact  that  this  weak- 
ness could  offer  no  resistance.  Families  were  turned 
forcibly  out  of  their  houses,  regardless  of  age  or  sex ; 
the  sick  and  the  feeble,  the  widow  and  the  orphan,  were 
alike  thrust  rudely  from  their  sheltering  homes,  while 
fields  of  grain,  and  all  personal  property,  were  stolen  or 
destroyed  by  a  band  of  men  armed  with  guns  and  clubs, 
in  the  interest  of  the  Pennsylvania  land-jobbers.1 

The  decision  of  the  Trenton  court,  looked  upon  as  a 
simple  question  of  jurisdiction  only,  without  affecting  the 
Ti.gJit  of  soil,  was  accepted  in  good  faith  by  the  people 
generally.  "  We  care  not,"  said  they  in  an  address  to 
the  General  Assembly,  "under  what  State  we  live  in,  if 
we  live  protected  and  happy." 

The  land-jobbers,  in  their  passion  for  self-aggrandize- 
ment and  emolument,  not  content  to  allow  an  interpreta- 
tion of  this  decision  favorable  to  the  settlers,  yet  so  foreign 
to  their  own  selfish  purposes,  urged  troops  upon  Wyo- 
ming, upon  the  arrival  of  which  "  the  inhabitants  suffered 
little  less  than  when  abandoned  to  their  most  cruel  and 
savage  enemies.  The  unhappy  husbandman  saw  his 
cattle  driven  away,  his  barns  on  fire,  his  children  robbed 
of  their  bread,  and  his  wife  and  daughters  a  prey  to  li- 
centious soldiery."  Memorials  and  petitions,  couched 
in  respectful  tone  and  language,  sent  repeatedly  to  the 
Assembly,  met  with  open  derision  or  contemptuous  silence. 
It  was  well  for  Wyoming,  feeble  yet  unshrinking,  to 
stand  alone  in  the  war-path  in  time  of  massacre  and  blood- 
shed, and  grapple  with  the  blows  otherwise  aimed  at  the 
lower  inland  settlements  of  Pennsylvania,  but  not  to  en- 
joy even  the  desolation  of  wild-woods  without  insult  and 
disfranchisement.  "The  inhabitants,"  says  Chapman, 
"  finding  at  length  that  the  burden  of  their  calamities  was 
too  great  to  be  borne,  began  to  resist  the  illegal  proceed- 


1  Z.  Butler's  Petition  to  Congress,  1781. 
1  Chapman's  History  of  Wyoming,  p.  138. 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  179 

ings  of  their  new  masters,  and  refused  to  comply  with  the 
decisions  of  the  mock  tribunals  which  had  been  estab- 
lished. Their  resistance  enraged  the  magistrates,  and  on 
the  12th  of  May  (1784),  the  soldiers  of  the  garrison  were 
sent  to  disarm  them,  and  under  this  pretense  one  hundred 
and  fifty  families  were  turned  out  of  their  dwellings,  many 
of  which  were  burnt,  and  all  ages  and  sexes  reduced  to 
the  same  destitute  condition.  After  being  plundered  of 
their  little  remaining  property,  they  were  driven  from  the 
valley  and  compelled  to  proceed  on  foot  through  the 
wilderness  by  way  of  the  Lackawaxen  to  the  Delaware, 
a  distance  of  about  eighty  miles.  During  this  journey 
the  unhappy  fugitives  suffered  all  the  miseries  which 
human  nature  appears  to  be  capable  of  enduring.  Old 
men,  whose  children  were  slain  in  battle,  widows  with 
their  infant  children,  and  children  without  parents  to  pro- 
tect them,  were  here  companions  in  exile  and  sorrow,  and 
wandering  in  a  wilderness  where  famine  and  ravenous 
beasts  continued  daily  to  lessen  the  number  of  the  sufferers. 
One  shocking  instance  of  suffering  is  related  by  a  survivor 
of  this  scene  of  death  ;  it  is  the  case  of  a  mother  whose 
infant  having  died,  roasted  it  by  piecemeal  for  the  daily 
subsistence  of  her  remaining  children  !"  ' 

Elisha  Harding,  Esq.,  who  was  one  of  the  exiles,  says 
"it  was  a  solemn  scene;  parents,  their  children  crying 
for  hunger — aged  men  on  crutches — all  urged  forward  by 
an  armed  force  at  our  heels.  The  first  night  we  encamped 
at  Capoose,  the  second  at  Cobb's,  the  third  at  Little 
Meadows  so  called,  cold,  hungry,  and  drenched  with  rain, 
the  poor  women  and  children  suffering  much." 

In  fact,  the  mutual  hatred  of  each  party,  cherished  from 
Capoose  to  Wyoming  with  every  expression  of  bitterness, 
was  so  intense  and  general,  and  the  settlers  up  the  lesser 
valley  shown  so  little  clemency  by  the  nomadic  hordes 
of  Pennymites  sent  up  from  Sunbury  and  elsewhere,  that 

1  Chapman's  History  of  Wyoming,  p.  138. 


180  HISTORY   OF   THE 

even  Brigadier-General  Armstrong,  afterward  Secretary  of 
War,  harsh  and  covetous  himself,  reported  to  President 
Dickenson  in  October,  1784,  that  "the  treatment  of  the 
Lackawany  people  has  been  excessively  cruel"  '  Vol- 
untary evidence  so  explicit  from  such  a  quarter,  needs  no 
corroborative  testimony  to  give  it  weight. 

No  person  suspected  of  being  a  well-wisher  of  the  Yan- 
kees, remained  in  the  settlement  unharmed  and  unmo- 
lested. Nor  was  the  rude  expulsion  of  the  inhabitants, 
who,  thus  dragging  themselves  along,  out  of  the  valley, 
too  weak  and  despairing  to  offer  resistance,  until  they 
sank  to  the  ground  from  hunger  and  exhaustion,  to  await 
the  coarse  instincts  of  their  pursuers,  more  merciless  than 
the  savages'  wild  work  six  years  before  with  brand  and 
battle-ax. 

Thus  for  i\\efi/Ui  and  last  time  was  every  New  England 
emigrant  expelled  from  the  Lackawanna  within  twelve 
years,  to  find  a  home  in  the  vacant  wilderness  with  their 
perishing  children  and  wives,  or  journey  on  foot  to  the  Del- 
aware, beyond  the  reach  of  their  pursuers,  if  not  carried 
to  Easton  jail.  No  portion  of  the  American  frontier  in  the 
early  history  of  the  country  so  wantonly  and  perennially 
inflicted  sorrows  upon  the  peaceful  adventurer  as  did  the 
Lackawanna  from  17G3  to  1784. 

"While  this  ferocious  conduct  on  the  part  of  Pennsylva- 
nia soldiers  was  repudiated  and  condemned  by  the  State, 
the  authorities,  chagrined  at  the  indignation  her  rash  and 
incompetent  instruments  had  evoked  throughout  the  con- 
federation, it  had  the  effect,  indirectly,  of  creating  the  new 
county  of  Luzerne  two  years  afterward. 

After  being  released  from  jail,  whither  nearly  all  the 
male  portion  of  the  inhabitants  had  been  driven,  charged 
with  no  crime  that  could  be  sustained,  and  yet  compelled 
to  live  on  water  and  bread  in  a  dismal  prison,'  they 
returned  to  their  desolated  homes  after  their  release. 

1  Pennsylvania  Archives,  1784,  p.  688.  '  Ibid.,  p.  G14. 


LACKA WANNA   VALLEY.  181 

The  farmers  up  the  Lackawanna,  far  away  from  their 
native  hills,  thus  irritated  and  interrupted  in  their  labors 
by  the  Pennymites,  and  occupied  wholly  with  thoughts 
of  their  wrongs,  sent  Mr.  Benjamin  Luce  the  following 
notice : — 

"Lackawany,  Oct.  8,  1784. 

"Sir 

We  understand  that  you  are  obstinate  and  treat  the 
Yankees  ill ;  therefore  this  is  to  warn  you  in  the  name  of 
the  Connecticut  Claimants  to  depart  and  leave  the  house 
of  Richard  Hollsted,  in  12  hours  in  peace,  or  expect 
trouble.  If  we  are  obliged  to  send  a  party  of  men  to  do 
the  business  you  must  abide  the  consequences. 

EBENEZER  JOHNSTON, 
WATERMAN  BALDWIN." ' 

Thus  passed  the  summer  and  winter  of  1784.  The 
spring  of  1785  developed  no  healthier  sentiment  nor  kind- 
lier feelings. 

One  or  two  affidavits,  taken  from  a  large  number  of  a 
similar  character  in  the  Pennsylvania  Archives  of  1785, 
serve  to  illustrate  the  spirit  in  which  this  struggle  for 
Wyoming  was  carried  on.  In  March  of  this  year,  a  con- 
stable named  Charles  Manrow  affirmed, 

"  That  Gangs  of  the  Connecticut  Party  are  daylay  gow- 
ing  through  the  Wioming  Settlements  distressing,  the  few 
Families  yet  in  the  place  who  are  attached  to  Government, 
by  Robing,  Plundering  and  Turning  -them  out  of  Doors 
in  a  most  naked  and  Distressed  situation,  that  yesterday 
was  a  day  set  for  all  those  People  who  had  not  actually 
been  Throwed  out  of  Doors  by  Violence,  to  be  goan  that 
they  had  Received  the  Last  notice  without  Distress.  That 
on  the  Twenty  Second  Instant,  Six  of  them  came  to  the 
Hous  of  this  Deponant  at  about  the  sun  Setting,  and 
Turned  his  Family  all  out  of  Doors,  Throwed  his  goods  all 
out  and  Considerable  part  broke  to  pieces,  Took  his  Grain, 

1  Ta.  Arch.,  1784,  p.  679. 


182  HISTOKY    OF   THE 

meet,  salt,  and  many  other  things,  that  his  Children  had 
DO  Shoes,  and  little  Cloathing,  Thretning  if  they  Return 
into  the  Hous,  they  would  burn  it  down  with  them  in  it, 
when  this  deponant  asked  the  officer  of  the  party,  what 
authority  he  had  for  such  Conduct  who  Produced  his 
Precept  Signed  Ebenezer  Johnson  their  Col.  or  Command- 
ing Officer."  ' 

"Daniel  Swarls,  being  duly  sworn  dotli  depose  and 
say,  that  on  the  Twenty  Second  Instant  a  Gang  of  Twelve 
of  the  Connecticut  Claimants  came  to  the  house  of  this 
Deponant  with  arms  Thretning  the  Family  so  that  his 
wife  is  in  a  situation,  that  her  life  is  almost  despaired  of, 
ordering  them  Immediately  out  of  Doors,  That  he  has 
been  Plundered  of  the  most  of  his  Effects  so  that  his  Fam- 
ily is  almost  naked,  himself  much  beat  and  abused  and 
hailed  out  of  Doors  by  the  hare  of  his  head." 

Upon  the  other  hand,  every  usurpation  aiming  to  oblit- 
erate Wyoming  as  a  Connecticut  colony — every  scheme 
having  for  its  object  the  destruction  of  the  industrious 
element,  which,  amidst  wars,  massacres,  expulsions,  im- 
prisonments, and  every  intolerant  artifice,  had  brought 
blooming  fields  out  of  the  wild  acres  from  Nanticoke  to 
Capoose,  was  tried  in  vain  by  the  Pennsylvania  land 
speculators.  Diplomacy,  the  weapon  of  subtle  men,  paci- 
fied and  accomplished  in  a  short  time,  what  all  else  had 
failed  to  do. 

On  the  25th  of  September,  1786,  Luzerne  County3  was 
erected  out  of  that  part  of  Northumberland  County  ex- 
tending from  Nescopeek  Falls  to  the  northern  boundary 
of  the  State.  Within  its  area,  it  included  all  the  Yankee 
or  New  England  Colony  west  of  New  York,  except  a  few 
settlers  along  the  Delaware  and  Paupack.  It  comprised 
within  its  boundaries  all  of  Susquehanna,  Wyoming, 
Columbia,  and  Lycoming,  the  greater  part  of  Bradford, 
and  a  fractional  portion  of  Sullivan  and  Montour. 

1  Pa.  Aix-li.,  1785,  p.  708.  *  Ibid.,  p.  700. 

"  Named  from  the  French  minister,  ('lievalier  dj  Li  Lu::  :r;ia. —  Cltaj>man. 


LACK  A  WANNA    VALLEY.  183 

The  year  of  1786  marks  an  important  era  in  upper 
Pennsylvania.  The  removal  of  Indian  tribes,  the  peace- 
ful solution  of  the  Connecticut-Pennsylvania  contro- 
versy, made  many  an  upland  clearing  in  the  edge  of 
the  forest  rejoice  with  the  returning  emigrant  or  new 
settler. 

"Deep  Hollow"  (now  Scranton)  resounded  with  the 
stroke  of  the  advancing  ax ; — the  Lehigh  and  Lackawaxen 
were  each  explored  by  Pennsylvania  to  learn  their  navi- 
gable capacity,1  while  separating  this  territory  into  a  new 
county,  gave  hope  and  impulse  to  many  a  brave  heart 
shrinking  from  no  danger,  but  longing  for  the  unrestrained 
and  uninterrupted  quiet  of  rural  life. 

The  formation  of  Luzerne  County,  while  it  tranquilized 
a  contest  unparalleled  in  reciprocal  bitterness  and  perti- 
nacity, also  annihilated  a  bold  project  of  a  few  of  the 
more  ambitious  Yankee  occupants  of  Wyoming,  led  by 
Col.  John  Franklin,  John  Jenkins,  and  Solomon  Strong, 
of  forming  a  new  and  independent  State  out  of  the  42d 
Degree  of  Latitude,  through  Pennsylvania  and  a  portion 
of  New  York,  with  Wilkes  Barre  as  the  capital. 

John  Franklin,  Solomon  Strong,  James  Fin,  a  Baptist 
minister,  John  Jenkins,  and  Christopher  Holbert  conceived 
the  scheme.  The  celebrated  Col.  Ethan  Allen  of  Ver- 
mont, who  was  twice  visited  by  Strong,  and  urged  to  throw 
the  strength  of  his  unbounded  popularity  into  the  move- 
ment, finally  espoused  the  cause  of  the  Connecticut  claim- 
ants against  Pennsylvania.2  By  the  aid  of  Col.  Allen, 
Vermont  had  been  carved  from  the  rough  borders  of 
New  York  in  spite  of  remonstrance  or  force,  and  why 
could  not  an  independent  Republic  be  established  at 
Wyoming  in  defiance  of  the  wishes  and  power  of  a  State, 
dishonoring  its  robes  by  harsh  intercourse  with  a  young 
border  colony  which  had  stood  for  years  in  blood  for  its 
defense,  like  a  Roman  sentinel  on  the  outer  wall  ?  Six 

1  Col,  Rec.,  vol.  xv.,  p.  65.        »  See  Pa.  Arch.,  1783-0,  pp.  761-4-6. 


184:  HISTORY    OF   THE 

hundred  men,  mostly  Yankees,  were  here,  which  with 
the  invincible  Green  Mountain  Boys,  obtained  by  asking, 
and  the  Connecticut  party  from  the  West  Branch  of  the 
Susquehanna,  whither  Mr.  Fin  had  been  sent  to  develop 
and  strengthen  the  enterprise  among  the  inhabitants,  it  was 
reasonably  supposed  that  a  body  so  formidable  in  num- 
bers, commanded  by  a  colonel  so  renowned  and  brave  as 
he  was  known  to  be,  having  the  right  and  possession  of  the 
valleys  and  all  roads  to  and  from  them  both  by  land  and 
water,  would  be  able  not  only  to  repel  all  opposing  force, 
extinguish  the  claim  and  grasping  avidity  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, but  triumphantly  assert  and  achieve  independence. 
The  appearance  of  Col.  Allen  at  Wyoming  at  this  time, 
clad  in  his  Revolutionary  regimentals,  while  the  public 
mind  down  the  Susquehanna  and  up  the  Lackawanna, 
favorably  discussed  the  contemplated  project,  gave  to  it 
still  greater  importance. 

The  creation  of  the  new  county  of  Luzerne,  which  was 
originally  intended  merely  as  an  instrument  to  defeat 
these  wronged  yet  patriotic  schemers — and  nothing  more 
—introduced  elements  and  authority  into  the  Lacka- 
wanna and  AVyoming  domain,  which  the  quick,  keen  eye 
of  Col.  Allen  saw  it  would  be  folly,  if  not  treason,  to  op- 
pose. The  colonel  soon  afterward  returned  to  Vermont. 
Aside  from  a  collision  necessarily  renewed  and  long 
continued  between  the  respective  States  concerned  by 
fostering  the  design  with  arms,  it  is  impossible  for 
the  broadest  calculator  to-day  to  estimate  the  conse- 
quences resulting  to  the  country,  especially  to  the  Lacka- 
wanna and  Wyoming  portion  of  it,  had  the  projected 
State,  with  the  hero  of  Ticonderoga  as  its  Governor,  been 
wrought  into  being. 

Col.  Franklin,  thf  offending  front  and  acknowledged 
head  of  the  Connecticut  party,  was  afterward  arrested, 
thrust  into  a  Philadelphia  prison,  loaded  with  chains, 
and  fed  in  the  dark,  damp  cell  upon  bread  and  water  ;  and 
yet  after  he  was  released,  in  October,  1787,  upon  his  own 


LACK  AW  ANNA  VALLEY.  185 

parole,1  he  returned  to  the  valley,  and  although,  like  all 
the  settlers,  adverse  to  the  broad,  bold  usurpations  of  the 
Provincial  speculators,  who  had  been  shamefully  wronged, 
he  smoked  the  pipe  of  peace,  and  sought  with  persistent 
steadiness  and  honesty  to  aid  the  operations  of  the  various 
compromising  laws. 

The  questions  at  issue,  acquiring  importance  at  the 
expense  of  the  interests  of  the  settlements,  being  no 
longer  known,  men  of  peaceful  nature  but  public  enter- 
prise began  to  project  highways  in  the  county  among 
which  was  a  public  road  or  turnpike,  from  the  Delaware, 
near  Stroudsburg,  to  the  incipient  village  of  Montrose,  then 
in  Luzerne.  In  March,  1788,  five  commissioners,  con- 
sisting of  Henry  Drinker,  Tench  Coxe,  John  Nicholson, 
Mark  Wilcox,  and  Tench  Francis,  were  elected  for 
this  purpose."  The  route,  surveyed  at  the  expense  of 
the  State,  remained  unbuilt  for  years.  In  May  following, 
commissioners  were  appointed  by  Pennsylvania,  to  visit 
Luzerne  County  and  examine  the  quantity  and  quality 
of  land  within  the  seventeen  certified  townships,  for 
the  purpose  of  enabling  the  House  to  fix  upon  a  prop- 
er compensation  to  be  paid  the  owners  thereof.  Two 
townships,  viz.  :  Pittston  and  Providence,  embraced  all 
the  domain  settled  in  the  Lackawanna  Valley.  The  latter 
being  five  miles  square,  contained  16,000  acres  and  ran 
from  the  township  of  Lackawa,  east  of  Cobb  Mountain,  to 
the  Moosic  elevation  separating  Exeter  from  Providence. 
Capoose,  rich  in  agricultural  resource  and  intrenched  in 
the  shade  of  pines,  boundless  and  beautiful  in  their  ex- 
pansion, was  the  principal  point,  inhabited  by  three  or 
four  families. 

A  number  of  settlers  in  the  Lackawanna  had  bought 
and  paid  both  the  Susquehanna  Company  and  the  State 
of  Pennsylvania  for  their  lands,  but  in  order  to  restore 
harmony,  and  give  full  operation  to  the  compromising 

1  Col.  Rec.,  vol.  xv.,  p.  304.  *  Ibid.,  p.  425. 


186  HISTORY    OF    THE 

law,  they  surrendered  their  titles  again  to  the  State  for  a 
mere  nominal  consideration,  and  purchased  their  own 
lands  again  at  the  appraisement  of  the  Commissioners 
appointed  by  the  State. 

Such  land,  according  to  its  quality,  was  divided  into 
four  classes  :— 

"As  soon  as  forty  thousand  acres  should  be  so  released 
to  the  State,  and  the  Connecticut  settlers,  claiming  land  to 
the  same  amount,  should  bind  themselves  to  submit  to 
the  determination  of  the  Commissioners,  then  the  law 
was  to  take  effect ;  and  the  Pennsylvania  claimants,  who 
had  so  released  their  land,  were  to  receive  a  compensation 
for  the  same  from  the  State  Treasury,  at  the  rate  of  five 
dollars  per  acre  for  lands  of  the  first  class,  three  dollars 
for  the  second,  one  dollar  and  fifty  cents  for  the  third, 
and  twenty-five  cents  for  lands  of  the  fourth  class.  The 
Connecticut  settlers  were  also  to  receive  patents  from  the 
State  confirming  their  lands  to  them,  upon  condition  of 
paying  into  the  Treasury  the  sum  of  two  dollars  per 
acre  for  lands  of  the  first  class,  one  dollar  and  twenty 
cents  for  lands  of  the  second  class,  fifty  cents  for  lands 
of  the  third  class,  and  eight  and  one-third  cents  for 
lands  of  the  fourth  class — the  certificates  issued  by  the 
Commissioners  to  regulate  the  settlement  of  accounts  in 
both  cases.  Thus,  while  the  State  was  selling  her  vacant 
lands  to  her  other  citizens  at  twenty-six  cents  an  acre,  she 
demanded  of  the  Connecticut  settlers  a  sum  which,  upon 
the  supposition  that  there  was  the  same  quantity  of  land 
in  each  class,  would  average  ninety-four  cents  an  acre."1 

PROVIDENCE  TOWNSHIP    AND   VILLAGE. 

The  Lackawanna,  from  the  two  Indian  villages  of  Ca- 
poose  and  Asserughney,  was  explored  in  1753  ;  it  was 
laid  out  into  two  townships  in  1770,  viz.,  Pittstown  and 
Providence— the  first,  named  after  the  celebrated  Pitt, 

1  Chapman,  p.  1G9. 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  187 

the  British  Commoner;  the  latter  after  Rhode  Island's 
capital,  as  thirty  of  the  Susquehanna  Company,  owning 
the  wild  lands,  came  from  the  "Colony  of  Khod-island." 
Pittstown  embraced  the  first  five  miles  of  the  valley ; 
Providence  extended  its  boundaries  still  five  miles  farther 
up.  Both  townships  unrolled  an  area  of  six  thousand 
acres,  divided  into  lots  of  300  acres  each,  called  shares. 
For  greater  convenience  and  availability,  lots  were  some- 
times subdivided  into  half  lots  or  shares.  Providence, 
originally  surveyed  five  miles  square,  was  the  sixth  town- 
ship formed  ;  was  designated  in  the  Westmoreland  Rec- 
ords as  "Ye  6th  Town  of  Capoose,"  because  Capoose, 
cleared  of  its  timber,  lay  on  the  path  which  brought 
emigrating  parties  into  the  Monsey  town,  where  they 
were  fed  on  venison  and  fish,  and  kindly  treated  by  the 
bow  and  oar's  men  inhabiting  it.  These  Indians,  roaming 
over  the  territory  for  twenty  years  after  the  original  sale 
of  the  lands,  were  skilled  in  the  use  of  the  bow  arid  toma- 
hawk, which  the  French,  by  lavishing  gifts  with  prod- 
igality, adroitly  turned  upon  the  English  in  1755-6.  At 
the  Indian  Treaty,  held  at  Easton  in  the  fall  of  1758,  this 
tribe  "brightened  the  Chain  of  Friendship  and  cleared 
the  blood  from  the  Council  Seats"  ever  afterward. 

Being  some  ten  miles  away  from  Pittstown  block-house, 
settlers  were  less  readily  prepared  to  encounter  the  greater 
danger  apparent  in  this  township,  than  to  labor  in  clear- 
ings more  favorably  located  on  the  Susquehanna. 

Timothy  Keys  and  Solomon  Hocksey,  two  young  men 
from  Connecticut,  struck  the  first  blow  into  the  woods  of 
the  new  township  in  1771.  With  gun  and  ax  they  pene- 
trated the  willowed  glen  now  known  as  Taylorsville, 
where  they  built  their  cabin  by  the  side  of  the  brook 
named  from  Mr.  Keys.  One  vast  park,  filled  with  deer, 
stood  between  this  creek  and  Capoose,  marked  by  a  single 
foot-path. 

Capoose  lands  originally  fell  into  the  hands  of  Capt. 
John  Howard,  from  the  Susquehanna  Company,  a  gentle- 


188  HISTORY   OF   THE 

man  unacquainted  with  their  precise  location  or  their 
wonderful  fitness  for  immediate  culture.  As  there  was 
no  disposition  to  settle  them,  for  the  prudential  reasons 
already  named,  he  interested  with  him  in  the  lands  Chris- 
topher Avery  and  "  Isooc  Trypp  of  west-moreland  in  ye 
County  of  Li tch field  &  Colony  of  Connecticutt  in  New-Eng- 
land,7' l  both  bold  Yankees,  seeking  fortune  in  Wyoming 
as  early  as  1769.  The  latter,  more  fearless  and  determined 
than  his  fellows,  could  not  overlook  the  garden,  where 
orchard  and  vineyard,  cared  for  no  longer  by  the  strolling 
braves,  enraptured  the  eye  with  blossom  and  promise. 
Near  the  vacated  wigwams  he  shaped  his  cabin  in  1771,  and, 
without  clearing  a  foot  of  land,  planted  and  raised  a  crop 
of  corn,  the  first  season,  on  the  plantation  deserted  but  a 
short  time  previous.  Mr.  Tripp  being  neither  scalped 
nor  endangered  during  the  winter,  others,  reassured  and 
emboldened  by  his  good  luck,  sprinkled  their  cabins 
along  the  stream,  giving  an  air  of  comfort  to  the  wilder- 
ness, here  and  there  eruptive  with  stump. 

A  lot  "in  ye  Township  of  New-Providence,  alious  Ca- 
poose,"  surveyed  to  Col.  Lodwick  Ojidirk,  passed  into 
the  hands  of  Johnathan  Slocum,  in  1771,  "on  account  of 
Boeing  ye  Duty  of  a  settler,"  for  Ojidirk.  This  tract,  con- 
taining 180  acres,  was  sold  to  James  Bagley,  April  29, 
1778.  Bagley' s  Ford,  near  the  mouth  of  Leggett's  Creek, 
took  its  name  from  this  old  resident. 

Among  the  pioneers  who  purchased  lots  or  shares  of 
the  Connecticut  Susquehanna  Company,  in  the  township, 
between  1772-5,  the  Westmoreland  Records  mention  John 
Dewit,  Andrew  Ilickman,  Fred.  Curtis,  Isaac  Tripp,  Jr., 
Solomon  Johnson,  Thos.  Pukits,  Benj.  Baily,  Mathew 
Dalson,  Ebene/er  Searles,  James  Leggett,  Gideon  Bald- 
win, John  Stevens,  Johnathan  Slocum,  Maj.  Fitch,  John 
Aldren,  Christopher  Avery,  and  Solomon  Strong.  Solo- 
mon Strong,  identified  in  1785-G  with  Col.  Ethan  Allen, 

1  Westmoreland  Records. 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  180 

John  Jenkins,  and  the  brave  John  Franklin,  in  the  at- 
tempted formation  of  a  new,  distinct  State  out  of  West- 
moreland, like  Fitch,  Searles,  Aldren,  Stevens,  and  Oji- 
dirk,  had  no  interest  in  the  township  other  than  a  specu- 
lative one  ;  this  was  trifling,  as  Baily  acquired  his  300 
acres  of  woodland  from  Strong,  for  a  "few  furs  and  a 
flint  gun."1 

Land  was  cheap,  and,  when  purchased  for  a  few  shil- 
lings an  acre,  excavations  in  the  great  woods  over  it  were 
only  made  by  hard,  patient  labor,  and,  after  the  trees  had 
paid  reluctant  homage  to  the  ax,  their  removal  and  de- 
struction gave  infinite  trouble  and  work.  Instead  of  leav- 
ing the  fallen  timber  to  season  for  a  year,  and  then,  when 
favored  by  a  long  dry  spell,  apply  the  torch  for  a  good 
burn,  making  "logging"  barely  necessary,  the  pioneer, 
pressed  by  the  wants  of  his  family,  drew  the  green  trees 
into  log-heaps  where  they  were  roasted  and  burned  into 
ashes.  And  even  after  the  new  land  was  thus  prepared 
for  the  reception  of  seed,  the  corn,  promising  reward  to 
the  toiling  husbandman,  must  be  defended  against  the 
.vigilant  raccoon  and  squirrel,  before  the  husking  bee 
secured  the  crop  in  the  garret,  away  from  its  nimble 
enemies. 

The  houses,  beginning  to  gladden  the  waste  places,  had 
but  a  single  story,  were  built  from  green  logs  up-rolled 
and  chinked  with  mud,  to  protect  the  inmates  from  cold,  and 
gave  one-third  of  this  space  to  huge  stone  chimneys.  There 
was  not  in  the  entire  township,  in  1775,  so  strange  a  feature 
as  three  houses  in  a  cluster,  or  two  within  sight  of  each 
other.  Every  farmer  was  his  own  carpenter,  and  thus 
every  style  of  architecture  became  popular.  Doors  were 
made  without  boards  ;  windows,  without  glass.  The  rich 
skin  of  the  fawn  easily  obtained,  or  the  bushy  robe 
snatched  from  old  bruin  while  visiting  the  barn-yard, 
brought  comfort  and  ornament  to  the  cabin,  warmed  in 

1  Westmoreland    Records. 


100  HISTORY   OF   THE 

winter  by  piles  of  fire-wood,  and  illuminated  at  night  with 
pine-knots  everywhere  abundant. 

The  township  had  neither  physician  nor  lawyer  for  a 
long  time  afterward,  nor  does  it  appear  that  any  physical 
or  material  interest  suffered  from  their  absence  ;  for  what 
tonic  can  equal  hard  work  and  coarse  food  in  the  field  or 
forest,  and  what  law  compare  with  common  honesty, 
blended  with  common  sense  ? 

No  newspapers  entered  their  cabins,  for  none  were 
printed  in  the  country  ;  almanacs,  selling  for  a  shilling 
a-piece,  supplied  the  settlement  with  the  news  of  the  year. 
Falling  and  burning  the  giant  timber  gave  recreation  to 
the  settlement,  disturbed  by  no  breach  of  the  social 
relations. 

Nothing  exhibits  the  New  England  character  in  a  light 
more  favorable  and  philanthropic,  than  the  fixed  organic 
rule  of  the  proprietors  of  each  township,  of  setting  apart 
and  reserving  forever  certain  lots  for  gospel  and  school 
purposes  before  others  were  offered  to  the  settler.  In 
every  township  one  lot  of  three  hundred  acres  was  thus 
reserved  for  the  first  minister  of  the  gospel  in  fee — one  for  a 
parsonage — one  for  the  support  of  a  school ;  three  were 
reserved  as  public  lots,  subject  to  the  future  disposition 
of  the  town.  Nearly  2,000  acres  of  land  were  thus  held 
in  Providence  Township.  Paths  cut  through  the  woods 
— over  hills  instead  of  around  them — were  more  bridle- 
ways than  roads,  while  fallen  trees  or  friendly  ford-ways 
served  for  stream-crossing. 

"The  town  of  Westmoreland  legally  incorporated  for 
civil  purposes,  was  about  seventy  miles  square,  and 
could  only  be  established  by  Supreme  Legislative  author- 
ity. AAHthin  this  limit  a  number  of  townships  of  five  or 
six  miles  square,  were  laid  off  by  the  Delaware  and  Sus- 
queharma  Companies,  divided  into  lots,  which  were 
drawn  for  by  Proprietors,  or  sold.  These  townships 
had  power  to  make  needful  laws  and  bye-laws  for  their 
interior  regulation,  the  establishment  of  roads,  the  care  or 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  101 

disposal  of  vacant  lots,  and  other  matters  entirely  local. 
Of  these,  there  already  existed  Wilkes  Barre,  Hanover, 
Plymouth,  Kingston  or  the  Forty,  Exeter,  Pittston,  and 
Capouse  or  Providence  ;  more  were  from  time  to  time 
added.  A  town  meeting,  therefore  now  when  l  legally 
warned,'  called  together  all  the  Freemen,  in  all  the  town- 
ships or  settlements,  from  the  Delaware  to  fifteen  miles 
beyond  the  Susquehanna,  and  from  the  Lehigh  north  to 
Tioga  Point."1  At  the  first  town  meeting  legally  warned 
and  held  in  Westmoreland,  "at  eight  of  the  clock  in  ye 
forenoon,  March  ye  20th,  1774,"  for  the  purpose  of  choos- 
ing town  officers,  all  this  vast  territory,  sparsely  occupied, 
was  divided  into  eight  separate  districts.  Wilkes  Barre, 
Plymouth,  Hanover,  and  Kingston,  made  four  districts. 
Voted,  "thatPittson  be  one  district  by  ye  name  of  Pitts- 
ton  district ;  and  that  Exeter,  Providence,  and  all  the 
lauds  west  and  north  to  ye  town  line,  be  one  district,  by 
ye  name  of  ye  North  District ;  and  that  Lackaway  settle- 
ment and  Blooming  Grove,  and  Sheolah,  to  be  one 
district,  and  to  be  called  by  ye  name  of  ye  Lackaway 
district ;  and  that  Coshutunk,  and  all  ye  settlements  on 
Delaware,  be  one  district,  and  joined  to  ye  other  districts, 
and  .known  by  ye  name  of  ye  east  district."2  From  the 
Lackawanna  portion  of  the  town,  or  "ye  North  District," 
Isaac  Tripp,  Esq.,  who  declined  serving,  was  chosen 
Selectman  for  the  ensuing  year,  John  Dewit  of  Capoose 
chosen  of  the  Surveyors  of  highways,  John  Abbot,  one  of 
the  Fence-  Viewers,  Gideon  Baldwin,  one  of  the  Listers, 
Barnabas  Gary  and  Timothy  Keys,  two  of  the  Grand 
Jurors,  and  James  Brown  one  of  the  Tything  men. 
These  persons,  the  old  records  informs  us,  were  "all 
loyal  subjects  of  His  Gracious  Majesty  King  George  the 
Third." 

August  Hunt  and  Frederick  Vanderlip,  two  residents 
of  New  Providence,  were  expelled  from  the  township  at 

1  Miner's  Wyoming,  p.  154.  s  Westmoreland  Records,  1774. 


192  HISTORY    OF    THE 

this  meeting,  because  they  were  men  "  that  have,  and  now 
do  so  conduct  themselves  "by  spreading  reports  about  ye 
town  of  Westmoreland,  much  to  ye  disturbance  of  ye 
good  and  wholsome  inhabitants  of  this  town,  and  by  their 
taking  up  and  holding  land  under  ye  pretention  of  ye 
title  of  Pennsylvania."1  "Voted  that  Hunt  be  expelled 
this  purchase,  and  he  be,  as  soon  as  may  be,  removed  out 
of  ye  town  by  ye  committee  at  ye  cost  of  this  Company, 
in  such  way  as  ye  Committee  shall  think  proper."2 

"  Voted  that  ye  Indian  apple  Tree,  so  called  at  Capoose, 
shall  be  ye  Town  Sign  Post  for  ye  town  of  IS"ew  Provi- 
dence.'" Each  township  had  a  prominent  tree  as  a  Town 
Sign  Post,  which,  in  the  absence  of  press,  newspaper,  or 
almanac,  made  a  public  point  where  all  notices  of  a  public 
character  had  to  be  affixed  to  be  legal.  Such  tree  notices, 
always  written — for  all  the  inhabitants  could  read  and 
write — made  a  meeting  legally  learned.  This  apple-tree, 
venerable  in  its  broad  branches,  as  if  arrayed  in  the 
foliage  of  its  youth,  planted  more  than  a  century  and  a 
half  ago,  yet  blooms  and  bears  its  fruit  by  the  road-side, 
between  Providence  and  Scranton,  a  few  hundred  feet 
above  the  site  of  the  ancient  village  of  Capoose. 

In  the  winter  of  177o,  there  was  a  meeting  of  the  settlers 
under  this  apple-tree,  to  dispose  of  land  on  the  Susque- 
hanna  at  the  site  of  the  present  village  of  Tunkhannock, 
as  can  be  seen  by  "a  list  of  men's  names  that  drew  for 
lots  in  the  township  of  Putnam  (now  Tunkhannock),  in 
Susquehannah,  Dec.  20th,  1775,  at  Providence."  '  Among 
persons  thus  drawing  lots  appear  the  names  of  Isaac  and 
Job  Tripp,  William  West,  Paul  Green,  Job  Green,  Zebu- 
Ion  Marcy,  and  John  Gardner. 

An  unsuccessful  effort  was  made  at  this  time  to  change 
the  name  of  Providence  for  that  of  Massassoil,  as  is 
shown  by  the  old  surveys  and  maps  preserved  among  the 
archives  of  the  county.  The  few  savages  remaining  in 

1  Westmoreland  Records,  1774.  '  Ibid.         •  IUd.        *  Ibid.,  1775. 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  193 

the  valley  in  1776-7,  as  they  could  not  preserve  their 
neutrality  despite  the  tempting  offers  of  the  Tories 
and  British  in  1778,  left  charred  and  crimson  traces  of 
their  presence.  Settlers  fled  to  Stroudsburg  with  their 
affrighted  loved  ones,  or  removed  temporarily  to  Wyo- 
ming, where  the  muttering  of  the  savages  hissed  down 
through  the  forests  from  the  upper  lakes.  Isaac  Tripp, 
Timothy  Keys,  James  Hocksey,  and  Andrew  Hickman, 
with  his  wife  and  child,  alone  remained.  These  few, 
having  dispute  only  with  wolves,  panthers,  and  "bears, 
around  the  rich  intervale  of  Capoose,  living  amicably  with 
the  hand  preparing  to  strike,  gave  no  thought  of  the 
danger  of  ambush  or  encounter  with  a  foe  until  it  came. 
And  even  when  the  Senecas,  dancing  the  war  song  in 
prospective  triumph,  ready  to  sting  with  their  arrows, 
poisoned  and  loaded,  hastened  from  their  wild  parks  into 
the  flood  of  canoes  moored  for  Wyoming,  these  settlers, 
conscious  of  no  wrong  done  by  themselves,  cherished  the 
hope  that  their  frail  cabins,  isolated  and  remote,  would  be 
spared  by  the  bands  which  had  promised  neutrality  or 
friendship. 

After  the  Wyoming  massacre,  it  took  but  a  few  quick 
strokes  of  the  hatchet  to  do  the  work  of  depopulating  the 
entire  Lackawanna  Valley,  leaving  it  a  waste,  where 
the  camp  fire  again  gleamed  upon  the  roaming  con- 
querors. 

A  few  months  after  the  massacre,  the  inhabitants  re- 
turned to  Wyoming  to  bury  the  dead  and  secure  the 
remnant  of  the  crops  ;  but  not  until  after  Gen.  Sullivan,  in 
the  summer  of  1779,  had  carried  fire  and  bullet  through 
the  Indian  lodges  along  the  upper  Susquehanna,  did  the 
few  former  occupants  of  Providence  lands  venture  back  to 
the  ashes  on  their  farms,  where  their  cabins  once  were 
standing.  These  few  persons,  influenced  by  the  objective 
attitude  of  the  Pennymites,  were  able  to  enlarge  the  range 
of  agriculture  in  the  township  but  little,  if  any. 

In  1786,  Isaac  Tripp,  3d,  emigrated  from  Rhode  Island 

13 


HISTORY    OF    THE 

•with  his  son,  Stephen,  then  ten  years  old.  He  brought 
with  him  at  this  time  no  other  member  of  his  family,  and 
it  was  not  until  1788  that  his  residence  at  Capoose  became 
permanent. 

Miner  informs  us  that  a  company  of  soldiers  were  at 
Capoose  at  the  time  of  the  Wyoming  massacre,  but,  as  all 
the  valuable  papers  having  reference  to  the  history  of  the 
township's  affairs  at  this  particular  time  were  destroyed, 
it  is  impossible  to  tell  the  precise  time  they  retired  before 
the  savages  ascending  the  Lackawanna. 

The  pacification  of  the  valleys  in  1786-8,  by  measures 
long  delayed,  imparted  new  impulse  to  every  interest  by 
removing  all  barrier  to  agricultural  progress  and  pros- 
perity. Men  began  to  enjoy  a  conscious  security,  denied 
them  till  now,  which  expanded  into  measures  of  public 
good. 

The  route  for  a  public  highway  across  Luzerne  had 
been  surveyed  in  1778  by  legislative  authority,  the  com- 
missioners of  which  reported  "  that  Providence,  situated 
favorably  between  two  mountains,  would  be  of  vast  im- 
portance to  the  road."1  These  facts  being  promulgated, 
had  their  influence  with  men  willing  to  wrestle  with  the 
forest  for  slight  reward  and  secure  homes. 

Aside  from  the  structure  at  the  mouth  of  Leggett's 
Brook,  put  up  unframed  by  Mr.  Leggett  in  177."),  to  be 
abandoned  soon  afterward,  the  first  house  erected  upon  the 
site  of  the  present  village  of  Providence  was  a  low  double 
log  affair,  built  in  1788  by  Enoch  Holmes.  The  single 
apple-tree,  standing  near  the  northeast  corner  of  Oak  and 
Main  streets,  marks  the  precise  location  of  his  cabin. 
Along  the  terraced  slope  of  Providence,  the  heavier  wood 
had  been  cleared  away,  either  by  Indian  husbandmen  or 
by  whirlwinds,  such  as  in  later  years  disturbed  the 
equanimity  of  the  young  village,  thus  rendering  necessary 
but  little  intrusion  upon  the  thickets  to  fit  the  land  for 

1  Commissioners'  Report,  1778,  p.  10. 


LACKAWANNA  VALLEY.  195 

planting  or  pasturage.  He  remained  here  two  years  with 
his  family,  pounded  his  maize  and  prepared  his  hominy, 
subsisting  upon  venison,  bear  meat,  and  the  varied  prod- 
ucts of  his  clearing,  in  peaceful  solitude. 

In  the  winter  months  he  constructed  brooms,  baskets, 
and  snow-shoes  from  the  laminated  ash  and  basswood, 
carrying  them  on  foot  to  Wilkes  Barre  to  exchange  for 
the  most  needed  commodities.  With  no  capital  but  a 
large  family,  increasing  with  each  succeeding  year,  he 
toiled  upon  his  hill-side  opening  until  1790,  when  he 
removed  north  of  Leggett's  Creek. 

Daniel  Waderman,  of  Hamburg,  Germany,  was  the 
second  settler.  While  visiting  London  in  1775,  he  was 
seized  by  the  British  press-gang,  and  forced  into  unwill- 
ing service.  He  was  present  at  the  battle  of  Bunker 
Hill,  followed  the  fortunes  of  the  British  until  1779,  when 
he  was  taken  prisoner  on  the  Mohawk.  Taking  the  oath 
of  allegiance,  he  enlisted  in  the  American  service,  and,  by 
his  faithful  deportment  as  a  soldier  during  the  remainder 
of  the  war,  proved  himself  an  unquestioned  patriot. 
Under  the  shadows  of  the  bluff,  deepened  by  foliage 
extending  down  to  the  edge  of  the  Lackawanna,  this 
scarred  veteran,  in  1790,  brought  forth  his  cabin.  The 
house  of  Daniel  Silkman  now  occupies  its  site.  For  a 
period  of  twenty-one  years  Mr.  Waderman  lived  here  in 
comparative  thrift  and  contentment,  acquiring,  by  fru- 
gality, means  to  purchase  wilder  lands  farther  up  the 
valley,  where  he  died  in  1835. 

Preserved  Taylor,  Coonrad  Lutz,  John  Giiford,  Constant 
Searles,  John  House,  Jacob  Lutz,  Benjamin  Pedrick, 
Solomon  Bates,  and  the  Athertons,  settled  in  the  township 
in  1790,  while  John  Miller,  afterward  famous  for  minis- 
terial achievements  and  other  good  works,  unbosomed  the 
uplands  of  Abington.  During  this  year  alterations  were 
made  in  the  township  lines.1 

While  townships,  as  surveyed  under  Connecticut  juris- 
diction, retained  the  name  originally  given  them,  their 


196  HISTORY   OF   THE 

boundaries  were  purposely  extinguished,  or  so  radically 
altered  by  Pennsylvania  landholders  as  to  lose  in  a  great 
measure  their  former  identity  and  relation. 

In  March,  1700,  Providence  township  line,  defined 
twenty  years  previous  by  Connecticut  settlers,  was  ob- 
literated by  the  Luzerne  County  Court,  which  divided  the 
county  into  eleven  townships,  one  of  which,  Lakawanak, 
extended  over  the  Lackawanna  Valley. 

The  people  of  the  old  upper  township  of  Providence, 
or  Capoose,  readily  acquiescing  in  arrangements  inaugu- 
rated by  Pennsylvania,  were  thus  compelled  to  transact 
all  business  of  a  public  nature  at  Pittston,  some  ten  or 
twelve  miles  away  from  their  homes. 

The  inhabitants  asked  for  a  restoration  of  Providence 
township,  because  "the  Town  of  Providence,"  says  their 
petition,  ''labor  under  great  disadvantages  by  reason 
of  being  annexed  to  Lackawanna,  that  the  inhabitants 
live  remote  from  the  place  where  the  Town  meets  on  pub- 
lic occasions,  and  that  they  have  a  very  bad  river  to  cross, 
which  is  impassible  at  some  times.'"  In  1792  the  petition 
was  granted. 

The  first  bridge  across  the  Lackawanna  was  built  in 
1796.  Until  this  time  there  were  three  public  fords  across 
the  stream  above  Pittston,  vi/.:  Tripp's,  Lutze's,  and 
Baggley's.  Along  the  stream,  where  the  banks  were  low 
and  the  waters  shallow,  a  place  was  selected  for  a  ford- 
way,  which,  in  the  absence  of  a  horse  or  a  tree,  was  crossed 
on  foot  alike  by  heroic;  women  and  men.  The  abrupt 
character  of  the  bank  of  the  stream  at  Providence  village, 
and  for  quarter  of  a  mile  below  it,  allowed  of  no  crossing 
in  this  manner,  nor  was  the  Lackawanna  at  this  point  span- 
ned by  a  bridge  until  the  Drinker  Turnpike  rendered  one 
necessary  in  182C. 

The  two- wheeled  ox-cart,  drawn  at  a  snail" s-pace,  over 
roads  filled  with  stones,  obstructed  by  hills,  served  the 
purposes  of  the  settlement  during  the  summer  months, 
while  the  cumbrous  snow-shoo  or  the  wooden  sled,  bent 


LACKAWANNA   VALLKY.  197 

from  the  oak  or  beech,  brought  happiness  to  many  a  home. 
Oxen  were  generally  used  both  for  farming  and  traveling. 
In  1792  there  were  in  Providence  township  but  ten  horses, 
twenty-eight  oxen,  and  fifty-two  cows. 

The  original  Griffin  in  Providence  was  Stephen,  who,  in 
1794  left  Westchester  County,  N.  Y.,  to  battle  with  Penn- 
sylvania forests.  He  located  near  Lutze's  ford  way. 
Thos.  Griffin  became  a  resident  of  the  valley  in  1811, 
James  in  181 2,  and  Joseph  and  Isaac  in  1816.  The  far- 
seen  hill,  below  Hyde  Park,  crowned  on  its  western  edge 
by  a  noble  park  reserved  for  deer,  is  known  throughout 
the  valley  as  "Uncle  Joe  Griffin's"  place,  where  he 
lived  for  half  a  century.  He  filled  the  office  of  justice 
of  the  peace  for  many  years.  In  1839-40,  conjoined  with 
the  late  Hon.  Chester  Butler,  he  represented  the  interests 
of  the  county  in  the  State  Legislature  with  credit.  With 
the  exception  of  Isaac  Tripp,  Sen.,  sent  to  Connecticut 
from  Westmoreland,  in  1777,  Jos.  Griffin,  Esq.,  was  the 
first  man  thus  honored  by  the  people  of  the  valley. 

The  taxables  of  Providence  township,  embracing  the 
entire  settlement  from  Bixe's  Gap  to  Pittston,  numbered 
in  1796  ninety  persons,  sixty-one  only  of  whom  resided 
within  its  boundaries,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  following 
"Providence  Assessment  for  the  Year  1796." 


198 


HISTORY    OF    THE 


Names  of  Inhabitants. 

B 
- 
M 

: 

0 

fc 

•C 

!» 

<3 

| 

Occupation  or  Profession. 

Residence. 

Tax. 

Atherton,  Corn's. 

i 

Farmer. 

Providence 

86 

Atherton,  John.  ... 

i 

n 

Farmer. 

do 

1.61 

Atherton.  Klczcr  

i 

i 

do 

do 

1.29 

Atwater  Bcnj 

i 

do 

do 

1   26 

Abbott,  Philip  

i 

06 

Alesworth  AVni 

2 

•< 

Innkeeper. 

do 

2  65 

Ablx)tt,  .Tames  
Bishop,  Wm  

i 

•2 

do 
Preacher  of  the  Gospel. 

do 
do 

4.69 
1   00 

Brown,  .Tamos  
Baplev,  Jameb  

? 

i 
i 

.. 
o 

Tailor. 
Farmer. 

do 
do 

.16 
3  .  34A 

Brown  Benj 

do 

do 

90 

Bapley,  A  slier  

i 

do 

do 

1.56 

Bagley,  Jesse  

i 

do 

do 

.07 

Butler.  Zcb'm.  heirs.    .    . 

Wilkes  Barre 

.75 

Bichvell,  David 

1   25 

Benedict  Silas 

06 

Bates,  Solomon  

i 

1 

Farmer. 

Providence. 

1  .01 

Corev,  Phebe  

f) 

3 

Spinster. 

do 

2.26 

Copwell.  William  

•> 

9. 

» 

Farmer. 

do 

.32 

Cobh,  Asa  

9 

4 

1   56$ 

Carev,  John  

f 

Farmer. 

Providence. 

1.20 

Chamberluiu,  John.  .  . 

.25 

Clark.  William  

.72i 

Conner.  James  

.66 

Covel,  Mathew  

Phvsician. 

Wilkes  Barre. 

.35 

Dolph,  Aaron  ... 

•' 

1 

Farmer. 

Providence. 

.71 

Dolph,  Charles  

'f, 

do 

do 

1.77 

Dolpli,  Moses  

do 

do 

.70 

Dol[)li,  Jolmathan  
Dean,  Jolmathan 

4 

3 

do 
do 

do 
Rhode  Inland 

1.99 
1    10 

Goodridtr.  Wm  

? 

1 

do 

Providence. 

1.41 

Gardner,  Stephen  

9 

•  1 

do 

do 

2.55} 

Gifford.  John  
Ilovt.  Stephen  

2 

1 

do 
do 

do 
do 

24 

.72 

How.  John  

1 

?, 

do 

do 

1.14 

How,  John,  Jr  

1 

•> 

1.14 

Hovt,  Kansford  

.33 

Hardv,  Wrn  

1 

.074 

Holmes,  Knock  

1 

i 

do 

do 

1.26 

Hall.  Nathan  

1 

do 

do 

.  65 

Hunter.  John  

New  York. 

2.00 

Hal.stcad,  John  

1 

do 

Providence. 

.cm 

Halstead,  Jonar  

do 

do 

.20 

Hopkins,  Jchibod  

Stockbridpe 

1   33 

Fellows.  Joseph  
Howard,  James  
Hibbert,  Kbenezer  

do 
do 
do 

Providence. 
Connecticut. 
.Nantacook. 

.30 
.60 
.40 

Lutz,  Coonrad  

^ 

i 

do 

Providence. 

1.44 

Liitz,  John  

1 

do 

do 

.16 

Lamkins.  John  
Lewi''  James 

l 

3 

do 
do 

do 

do 

.62 

2   27 

Ltitzs,  Mich  

? 

do 

do 

.60 

Lut/,  Jacob  
Lutzcns,  Nicholas  

2 

2 
1 

1 
1 

do 

do 

1.07 

3.03 

Miller,  Christopher  

1 

do 

do 

.07 

Miller,  Samuel   

do 

Pittston. 

..'iO 

MacDanicl.  John  

1.05 

LACKAWANNA   VALLEY. 


199 


Names  of  Inhabitants. 

e 

X 

z 
<s 

fc 

1 

'-~ 
•=. 

Occupation  or  Profession. 

Residence. 

Tax. 

Mills  John  

1 

Farmer. 

Pittston. 

.77 

Obediko  Lodwick 

Rhode  Island. 

.GO 

Park,  Ebonozer  

2 

1 

do 

Providence. 

1.69 

Picket  Thomas  

9 

do 

do 

•  25£ 

? 

do 

do 

2.07$ 

Potter  David  

.60 

Boss,  Win  

do 

Wilkes  Barre 

1.10 

Ross,  Timothy  

.55 

Ross  Nathan    

1.72i 

Ralph.  Johnathan.  .  .  . 

1 

1 

do 

Providence. 

.Hi 

Rozel  John  

do 

New  York. 

3.00 

Smith,  Thomas  

2 

2 

do 

Providence. 

1.62 

Stephen  Timothy  

1 

do 

do 

.66 

Slaiter  Samuel  

1.70 

Simral  Wm  

1 

I 

Farmer. 

Providence. 

.75 

1 

1 

do 

do 

.79 

Searles,  Constant  

1 

1 

do 

do 

1.14 

Sills  Shadrick  

Lonenburg. 

1.10 

Selah,  Obediah  

.60 

Stanton,  Wm  

2 

2 

1 

do 

Providence. 

.85 

Taylor,  Daniel  

ft 

4 

do 

do 

1.71 

ft 

0 

do 

do 

.88 

Taylor,  Preserved  

2 

3 

1 

do 

do 

1.82 

1 

do 

do 

.56 

Tripp,  Isaac,  Jr  

ft 

2 

1 

do 

do 

.44* 

do 

do 

1.00 

Tripp,  Isaac  

ft 

1 

3 

do 

do 

J5.89 

Wright  Thomas  

Merchant. 

Pittston. 

2.12 

Spinster. 

Providence. 

.45 

Carey   Barnabas             .  .  . 

Farmer 

do 

36 

Tompkins   Ben  

1 

do 

do 

.89 

Lewis  James  

.10 

Gavlor.  .  .  . 

Connecticut. 

.60 

Town  Meetings  were  first  held  in  Providence  at  the 
house  of  Stephen  Tripp,  in  1813.  The  entire  vote  of  the 
township,  then  extending  jurisdiction  over  the  subse- 
quent townships  of  Lackawanna,  Covington,  Jefferson, 
Blakeley,  Greenfield,  and  Scott,  numbered  eighty-two,  as 
follows: — 


Federal  vote 46 

1814.  "         " 47 

1815.  "         " 51 

1828.         "          "  . ,  . .  55 


Democratic 36 

"          36 

" 44 

"  . .  55 


As  late  as  1816,  wild  gam'e  thronged  the  thickets  around 
Slocum  Hollow.  Benjamin  Fellows,  Esq.,  a  hale  old 
gentleman,  informs  the  writer  that  he  has  often  seen 
fifty  turkeys  in  a  flock  feeding  on  the  stubble  in  his 


200  HISTORY   OF   THE 

father's  field,  in  Hyde  Park,  while  deer  tramped  over  the 
plowed  land  like  herds  of  sheep.  In  1804,  in  company 
with  other  hunters,  lie  killed  both  panthers  and  bears  in 
the  woods  between  Hyde  Park  and  Slocum  Hollow. 

The  general  history  of  the  township  contains  little  of 
general  interest.  Roads  were  few  and  rugged,  and  the 
inhabitants,  priding  themselves  in  assiduous  labor  and 
frugality,  lived  and  died  contented.  They  enjoyed  nei- 
ther churches  nor  school-houses,  for  none  had  yet  emerged 
from  the  clearings ;  were  annoyed  by  few  or  only  light 
taxes  ;  and  yet  kindness  and  hospitality  were  so  blended 
with  their  daily  toil  on  farms  rendered  fertile  by  a  good 
burn  or  unvaried  cultivation,  that  the  social  relations  of 
the  residents  of  the  township  were  rarely,  if  ever,  dis- 
turbed by  sectarian  partiality  or  political  asperities.  The 
general  health  was  good,  with  no  prevailing  sickness  until 
1805,  when  the  typhus  fever,  or  "the  black  tongue,"  as  it 
was  termed,  carried  its  ravages  into  settlements  just  begin- 
ning to  feel  the  impulse  of  prosperity,  along  the  borders  of 
the  Susquehanna  and  the  Lackawanna.  Drs.  Joseph  Davis 
and  Nathaniel  Giddings,  the  latter  of  whom  settled  in 
Pittston  in  1783,  became  the  healing  Elishas  to  many  a 
needy  household.  II.  C.  L.  Yon  Storch  settled  in  Provi- 
dence in  1807.  A  German  by  birth,  he  inherited  the 
habits  of  industry  and  economy  characterizing  the  people, 
which  in  a  few  years  enabled  him  to  unfold  the  field  from 
the  forest,  and  gather  about  him  a  competency. 

The  main  portion  of  Providence  village  stands  upon  land 
which  came  into  possession  of  James  Griffin  in  the  winter 
of  1812,  who  moved  with  his  family  into  the  solitary  log- 
house  vacated  by  Holmes.  The  labor  of  destroying  the 
large  trees  upon  the  new  land  for  the  reception  of  seed 
not  always  rewarding  the  husbandman  with  the  yield  ex- 
pected, owing  to  the  occurrence  of  frost  and  the  presence 
of  wild  animals,  was  so  slow,  that  the  settlement  of  the 
township,  encouraged  only  by  a  lumber  and  agricultural 
interest,  made  tardy  advancement.  As  late  as  1816,  three 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  201 

settlers  only  lived  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  Borough. 
Daniel  Waderman,  James  and  Thomas  Griffin.  The  next 
year  a  clearing  was  commenced  in  the  Notch  by  Levi 
Travis. 

The  land  originally  reserved  in  Providence  exclusively 
for  school  purposes,  owing  to  the  prolonged  Wyoming 
dispute  and  change  of  jurisdiction,  lay  idle.  Forty - 
eiglit  years  elapse  after  the  settlement  of  the  valley 
before  a  school-house  was  erected  within  its  limits.  The 
first  school-house,  diminutive  in  proportion,  but  yet  suffi- 
cient for  the  demand  upon  it,  was  built,  a  few  rods  below 
the  Holmes  house,  in  1818.  It  is  still  standing  by  the 
road-side  and  used  as  a  dwelling.  Previous  to  this, 
schools  were  kept  in  private  houses,  and  sometimes  under 
the  shade  of  a  tree  in  summer,  and  some,  if  taught  at  all, 
were  taught  to  read,  write,  and  cipher  by  the  fireside 
at  home.  In  the  upper  portion  of  the  village,  near  the 
terminus  of  the  Peoples  Street  Railway,  stands  an  old 
brown  school-house,  erected  in  1834,  known  as  the  Heer- 
man's  or  "Bell  school-house."  The  bell  giving  the 
house  its  name,  costing  fifteen  dollars,  paid  for  by  sub- 
scription, hung  in  the  modest  belfry  for  forty -five  years, 
when  it  was  transferred  to  the  Graded  School  building. 
It  was  the  first  bell  ever  heard  on  the  plains  of  the  Lack- 
awanna,  and  as  its  animating  tones  rang  out  on  the  air, 
and  were  borne  by  the  breeze  over  hill  and  valley,  it 
awakened  a  pride  that  was  ever  cherished  by  the  older 
inhabitants  until  its  sudden  and  vandalic  removal  a  few 
years  since.  The  bell  is  yet  sound  and  sweet  in  its  vibra- 
tions, and  serves  to  call  the  unwilling  urchin  to  school  as 
in  days  of  yore.  A  partisan  spirit  was  introduced  into 
the  school,  which  so  embittered  the  relations  of  the  neigh- 
borhood as  to  result  in  the  erection  of  a  new  school- house 
across  the  river  in  1836  under  Democratic  auspices. 

Dr.  Silas  B.  Robinson  came  into  the  township  in  1823, 
where  he  creditably  practiced  his  profession  nearly  forty 
years.  So  long  had  he  lived  in  the  township,  and  so  well 


202  HISTORY   OF   THE 

was  he  known  for  his  blunt  manners,  blameless  life,  and 
kind  heart,  even  with  all  his  pardonable  eccentricities, 
that  his  presence  was  welcome  everywhere,  and  his  sud- 
den death  in  I860  widely  lamented. 

Nothing  tended  to  give  a  vigorous  direction  to  Provi- 
dence toward  a  village  more  than  the  Philadelphia  and 
Great  Bend  Turnpike.  This  highway,  well  known  as  the 
*'  Drinker  Turnpike,"  promised  as  it  passed  through  the 
village  with  a  tri-weekly  stage-coach  and  mail,  to  land 
passengers  from  the  valley  in  Philadelphia  after  two  days 
of  unvarying  jolting.  This  road,  chartered  in  1819,  com- 
pleted in  1826,  was  the  first  highway  tlirouyli  Cobb's 
Gap.  The  Connecticut  rood,  long  traversed  by  the  emi- 
grant, casting  a  wishful  look  into  the  valley,  passed  over 
the  rough  summit  of  the  mountain,  here  cut  in  twain  by 
Roaring  Brook.  The  Luzerne  and  Wayne  County  turn- 
pike built  this  year,  intersected  Drinker' s  road  at  Provi- 
dence. 

As  the  village  from  these  causes,  and  from  its  central 
position  began  to  grow  into  importance,  Slocum  Hollow, 
shorn  of  its  glory  by  the  abandonment  of  its  forge  and 
stills,  was  judged  by  the  Department  at  Washington  as 
being  too  obscure  a  point  for  a  post-office,  as  the  receipts 
for  the  year  1827  averaged  only  $3.37|-  per  quarter.  The 
office  was  removed  the  next  year  to  its  thriftier  rival, 
Providence. 

1  The  change  that  a  third  of  a  century  brings  our  race,  can  bo  readily  appreciated 
by  a  glance  nt  "  Tlio  list  of  Letters  remaining  in  Providence  Post  Oflice,  July  1, 
1335  "  as  copied  from  th?  Northern  Pennsyluanian,  a  weekly  paper  printed  in 
Cnrbondalo,  by  Amzi  Wilson.  Of  the  persons  thus  addressed  but  a  single  one 
survives, — the  venerable  Zephaniah  Knapp  of  Pittston. 
Klezor  II.  Athcrton.  Henry  Pepper,  Amasa  Cook.  Louisa  Forest, 

John  Lurne,  Francis  Mead,  David  Patrick,  David  S.  Rice, 

Hannah  Van  Stork,    John  Morden,  Stephen  Tripp,          Joiner  Phillips, 

B.irney  Carey,  Wm.  ('.  Green.  Alva  Dana,  Robert  C.  Hury, 

Aug.  Jcnks,  Thos.  T.  Atherton,      Sclah  Mead.  Phineas  Carman, 

Zophaniah  Knapp,     John  Bilson,  P.  C. ,  Samuel  Wadermnn, 

Maria  Chase.  David  Krotzcr,  Samuel  Stevens,       Isaac  Soarles, 

Joseph  Lanco,  Michael  Agnevv,         Oliver  Phillips,          W.  Whitlock. 

William  G.  Knapp, 

JOHN  VAUGHN,  JR.,  P.  M. 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  203 

On  what  is  now  the  southwest  corner  of  Market  and 
Main  streets,  Elisha  S.  Potter  and  Michael  McKeal  in 
1828  inaugurated  a  country  store  upon  the  popular  princi- 
ple of  universal  credit,  and  they  were  so  successful  in 
establishing  it,  that  some  of  their  dues  are  yet  outstanding. 
The  late  Elisha  S.  Potter,  and  our  townsman  Nathaniel 
Cottrill,  looking  forward  to  the  future  value  of  the  idle 
acres  surrounding  "  Razorville,"  as  the  village  was  long 
called,  purchased  fourteen  acres  of  the  Holmes  tract  in 
1828,  including  the  fine  water  privileges,  for  $285  per  acre. 
Mr.  Cottrill  shortly  afterward  came  into  possession  of 
the  entire  interest  of  Esq.  Potter,  and  erected  a  grist-mill 
upon  the  premises.  The  village  has  been  visited  by  three 
tornadoes  since  its  settlement.  The  most  fearful  one,  or 
the  "  great  blow,"  swept  away  a  great  portion  of  the  vil- 
lage on  the  3d  of  July,  1834.  During  the  afternoon  of 
that  day,  which  was  one  of  unusual  warmth,  the  thunder 
now  and  then  breaking  from  the  blackened  sky,  gave 
notice  of  the  approaching  storm.  It  came  with  the  fury 
of  a  tropical  whirlwind.  A  strong  northwesterly  current 
of  air  rushing  down  through  Leggett'  s  Gap,  met  the  main 
body  as  it  whirled  from  the  more  southern  gap,  contig- 
uous to  Leggett' s,  and  concentrating  at  a  point  opposite 
the  present  residence  of  Mr.  Cottrill,  commenced  its  wild 
work.  As  it  crossed  the  mountain,  it  swept  down  trees 
of  huge  growth  in  its  progress,  leaving  a  path  strewn 
with  the  fallen  forest. 

At  Providence  seems  to  have  been  the  funnel  of  the 
northwest  current,  which,  as  it  arrived  at  the  Lackawanna, 
was  turned  by  that  from  the  southwest  to  a  northeast 
direction.  Before  dusk  the  gale  attained  its  height,  when 
the  wind,  accompanied  with  clouds  of  dust,  blew  through 
the  streets,  lifting  roofs,  houses,  barns,  fences,  and  even 
cattle  in  one  instance,  from  the  earth  and  dashing  them  to 
pieces  in  the  terrible  exultation  of  the  elements. 

Nearly  every  house  here  was  either  prostrated,  dis- 
turbed, or  destroyed  in  the  course  of  a  few  seconds.  A 


HISTORY    OF    Till: 

meeting-house,  partly  built,  in  the  lower  part  of  the  vil- 
lage, was  blown  down  and  the  frame  carried  a  great 
distance.  The  house  and  store  of  N.  Cottrill,  standing 
opposite  the  tavern  kept  by  him  at  this  time,  was  raised 
from  its  foundation  and  partly  turned  around  from  the 
west  to  the  northwest,  and  left  in  this  angular  position. 
The  chimney,  however,  fell,  covering  up  a  cradle  hold- 
ing the  babe  of  Mrs.  Phinne}',  but  being  singularly  pro- 
tected by  the  shielding  boards,  the  child,  when  found  in 
about  an  hour  afterward,  was  laughing  and  unharmed. 

Some  large  square  timber,  lying  in  the  vicinity,  was 
hurled  many  rods  :  one  large  stick,  ambitious  as  the  bat- 
tering ram  of  old,  passed  endwise  entirely  through  the 
tavern-house,  and  was  only  arrested  in  its  progress  by 
coming  into  contact  with  the  hill  sloping  just  back  of  the 
dwelling,  into  which  it  plunged  six  or  seven  feet.  In  its 
journey — or  forcible  entry,  as  lawyers  might  term  it- 
it  passed  through  the  bedroom  of  Mrs.  Cottrill,  immedi- 
ately under  her  bed. 

"  Gravel-stones  were  driven  through  panes  of  glass,  leav- 
ing holes  as  smooth  as  a  bullet  or  a  diamond  could  make, 
while  shingles  and  splinters,  with  the  fieetness  of  the  feath- 
ered arrow,  wen?  thrown  into  clapboards  and  other  wooden 
obstructions,  presenting  a  strange  picture  of  the  fantastic. 

The  office  of  the  late  Elisha  S.  Potter,  Esq.,  standing  in 
the  lower  part  of  the  village,  was  caught  up  in  the  screw- 
like  funnel  of  the  whirlwind,  and  carried  over  one  hun- 
dred feet,  and  fell  completely  inverted,  smashing  in  the 
roof;  it  was  left  in  its  half-somerset  position,  standing  on 
its  bare  plates.  The  venerable  and  esteemed  old  squire 
and  Mr.  Otis  Severance,  who  wen?  transacting  business  in 
the  office  at  the  time,  kept  it  company  during  its  aerial 
voyage,  both  escaping  with  less  injury  than  fright. 

The  embankment  of  the  old  bridge  across  the  Lacka- 
wanna,  from  its  south  abutment,  was  sided  with  large 
hewn  timbers,  remaining  there  for  years,  and  well  satu- 
rated with  water.  On  the  lower  side  these  were  taken 


LACK  A  WANNA   VALLEY.  205 

entirely  from  their  bed,  and  pitched  quite  two  hundred 
feet  into  the  adjacent  meadow.  An  old  aspiring  fanning- 
mill,  standing  at  the  front  door  of  the  grist-mill,  upon  the 
ground,  took  flight  in  the  whirlwind,  and  was  carried  in 
the  door  of  the  second  story  of  the  mill,  without  being 
broken  by  the  power  so  rudely  assailing. 

Along  the  eastern  side  of  the  road  leading  to  Carbon- 
dale,  in  places  where  the  focus  of  the  current  dipped  or 
reached  the  earth,  all  was  wreck  and  disorder.  Young 
hickory-trees  left  standing  by  the  settlers  for  shade  or 
other  purposes,  and  apple-trees  bending  with  the  ripening 
apple,  fell  like  weeds,  and  the  remaining  branches  and 
roots,  twisted,  torn,  and  uprooted,  revealed  to  the  passer- 
by the  strength  of  the  blow. 

At  the  present  thriving  and  appropriately-named  Ca- 
poose  works,  owned  by  Mr.  Pulaski  Carter,  there  lay  a 
strip  of  meadow  upon  the  bank  of  the  Lackawanna,  where 
was  standing  a  small  carding-machine.  This  building  was 
quickly  demolished,  the  wool  and  rolls  being  spun  along 
the  fields  and  woods  for  miles.  Some  were  carried  in  an 
oblique  direction  to  Cobb'  s  Pond,  on  the  very  summit  of 
the  Moosic  Mountain. 

One  of  the  most  singular  incidents,  however,  in  the  phe- 
nomenon of  the  hurricane,  occurred  to  a  young  woman 
living  half  a  mile  from  the  village,  on  the  route  taken  by 
the  whirlwind.  Like  many  timid  ones  of  the  town,  trem- 
ulous at  the  approach  of  the  lightning  and  thunder,  she 
sought  refuge  in  bed.  While  smothering  in  the  feathers 
under  the  covering  of  the  quilt,  the  bed  on  which  she  was 
lying  was  whirled  from  the  house,  just  unroofed,  and  car- 
ried along  by  the  force  of  the  black  current  of  air  several 
rods,  and' landed  safely  in  the  meadow  adjoining,  before 
she  was  aware  of  her  aerial  and  unjolting  flight. 

In  1849,  Providence  village  was  incorporated  into  a 
borough  ;  in  1866,  consolidated  into  the  city  of  Scranton, 
forming  the  first  and  second  wards  of  this  young  metropo- 
lis of  the  Lackawanna  valley. 


206  DISTORT    OF   THE 


DUNMORE.1 

Like  Scranton,  Hyde  Park,  Green  Ridge,  Dickson, 
Olyphant,  Pecktown,  and  Petersburg,  Dunmore  is  one  of 
numerous  villages  which  sprang  from  the  original  township 
of  Providence.  Purchased  of  the  natives  in  1754  by  the 
whites,  long  before  the  tomahawk  was  flung  over  the 
Moosic,  the  territory  now  embracing  this  village  offered 
its  solitude  in  vain  to  the  pioneers  seeking  a  home  in  the 
wilderness  between  the  Delaware  and  the  Susquehanna 
until  the  summer  of  1783.  At  this  time,  William  Alls  worth, 
a  shoemaker  by  trade,  who  had  visited  the  Connecticut 
land  at  Wyoming  for  the  purpose  of  selecting  a  place  for 
his  home  the  year  previous,  reached  this  point  at  evening, 
where  he  encamped  and  lit  his  fire  in  the  forest  where 
Dunmore  was  thus  founded. 

The  old  Connecticut  or  Cobb  road,  shaded  by  the  giant 
pines  extending  from  the  summit  of  the  mountain  to 
Capoose,  had  no  diverging  pathway  to  Sloe  urn  Hollow. 
No.  Six,  or  Blakeley,  because  neither  of  these  places  had 
yet  acquired  a  settler  or  a  name.  From  the  "  Lackawa  " 
settlement,  on  the  Paupack,  some  four  and  twenty  miles 
from  the  cabin  of  Allsworth,  there  stood  but  two  habi- 
tations in  1783,  one  at  Little  Meadows,  the  other  at  Cobb's, 
both  kept  as  houses  of  entertainment.  The  need  of  more 
places  of  rest  to  cheer  the  emigrants  toiling  toward 
Wyoming  with  heavy  burdens  drawn  by  the  sober  team 
of  oxen,  induced  Mr.  Allsworth  to  fix  his  abode  at  this 
spot.  While  he  was  building  his  cabin  from  trees  fallen 
for  the  purpose  of  gaining  space  and  material,  his  covered 
wagon  furnished  a  home  for  his  family.  At  night,  heaps 
of  logs  were  kept  burning  until  long  after  midnight,  to 
intimidate  wolves,  bears,  wild  cats,  and  panthers  inhab- 
iting the  chaparral  toward  Roaring  Brook  and  Capoose. 
Deer  and  bear  were  so  abundant  for  many  years,  within 

1  Named  from  the  Earl  of  Dunmore. 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  207 

sight  of  his  clearing,  that  his  family  never  trusted  to  his 
rifle  in  vain  for  a  supply  of  venison  or  the  substantial 
haunches  of  the  bear.  In  the  fall  and  winter  months, 
wild  beasts  made  incursions  with  such  frequency,  that 
domestic  animals  at  night  could  be  safely  kept  only  in 
palisaded  inclosures.  These  were  a  strong  stockade"  made 
from  the  well-driven  sapling,  and  generally  built  contig- 
uous to  the  dwelling,  into  which  all  kinds  of  live  stock 
were  driven  for  protection  after  nightfall.  Every  farmer 
in  the  township  of  Providence,  unwilling  to  see  his  home 
invaded  and  occupied  by  the  common  enemy  at  the  dead 
of  night,  took  this  precaution  less  than  eighty  years  ago. 
And  even  then  they  were  not  exempt  from  depredation  at 
Mr.  Alls  worth' s.  At  one  time,  just  at  the  edge  of  evening, 
a  bear  groped  his  way  into  the  pen  where  some  of  his 
pigs  were  slumbering,  seized  the  sow  in  his  brawny  paws 
and  bore  the  noisy  porker  hurriedly  into  the  woods, 
where  it  was  seen  no  more.  The  affrighted  pigs  were  left 
unharmed  in  the  pen.  At  another  time,  during  the 
absence  from  home  of  Mr.  Allsworth,  a  large  panther 
came  to  his  place  before  sundown  in  search  of  food.  This 
animal  is  as  partial  to  veal  as  the  bear  is  to  pork.  A  calf 
lay  in  the  unguarded  inclosure  at  the  time.  Upon  this 
the  panther  sprang,  when  Mrs.  Allsworth,  alarmed  by 
the  bleat  of  the  calf,  seized  a  pair  of  heavy  tongs  from  the 
tire-place,  and,  with  a  heroism  distinguishing  most  of  the 
women  of  that  day,  drove  the  yellow  intruder  away 
without  its  intended  meal.  The  same  night,  however,  the 
calf  was  killed  by  the  panther,  which  in  return  was 
captured  in  a  trap  the  same  week,  and  slain. 

The  house  of  Mr.  Allsworth,  famed  for  the  constant 
readiness  of  the  host  to  smooth  by  his  dry  jokes  and  kind 
words  the  ruggedness  of  every  man's  daily  road,  became 
a  common  point  of  interest  and  attraction  to  the  emigrant 
or  the  wayfarer.  The  original  cabin  of  Mr.  Allsworth 
stood  upon  the  spot  now  occupied  by  the  brick  store  of 
John  D.  Boyle. 


208  HISTORY    OF    THE 

The  descendants  of  Mr.  Allsworth  have  filled  many 
places  of  trust  and  usefulness  in  the  county,  and  adorned 
the  various  walks  of  social  life.  For  twelve  years  this 
pioneer  had  no  neighbors  nearer  than  those  living  in 
Capoose  or  Providence.  In  the  summer  of  1795,  Charles 
Dolph,  John  Carey,  and  John  West  began  the  labor  of 
clearing  and  plowing  lands  in  the  neighborhood  of  Buck- 
town  or  the  Corners,  as  this  place  was  long  called  after 
the  first  foot-path  opened  from  Blakeley  to  the  Roaring 
Brook  crossed  the  Wyoming  road  at  Allsworth' s. 

Edward  Lunnon,  Isaac  Dolph,  James  Brown,  Philip 
Swartz  and  Levi  De  Puy,  purchased  land  of  the  State  be- 
tween 1799-1805  and  located  in  this  portion  of  Providence 
Township. 

The  old  tavern,  long  since  vanish  edwith  its  round, 
swinging  sign  and  low  bar-room,  one  corner  of  which, 
fortified  with  long  pine-pickets,  extending  from  the  bar 
to  the  very  ceiling,  in  times  of  yore,  was  owned  success- 
ively by  AVm.  Allsworth,  Philip  Swartz,  Isaac  Dolph, 
Henry  W.  Drinker,  and  Samuel  De  Puy,  before  its 
destruction  by  fire,  a  number  of  years  ago. 

The  external  aspect  of  Dunmore,'  somber  in  appearance 
and  tardy  in  its  growth,  with  a  clearing  here  and  there 
occupied  by  men  superior  to  fear  or  adversity,  promised 
so  much  by  its  agricultural  expectations  in  1813,  that  Dr. 
Orlo  Ilamlin  with  his  young  wife,  was  induced  to  settle 
a  mile  north  of  Allsworth.  lie  was  the  first  physician 
and  surgeon  locating  in  Providence.  This  locality,  fresh 
with  hygiene  from  the  forest,  offered  so  little  compensa- 
tion to  a  profession  without  need  or  appreciation  among 
the  hardy  woodman,  that  the  doctor  the  next  year 
removed  to  Salem,  Wayne  County,  Pennsylvania. 

The  population  of  Dunmore  and  Blakeley,  doubling  in 
numbers  and  increasing  in  wealth,  warranted  Stephen 
Tripp  in  erecting  a  saw  and- gristmill  in  1820,  on  the 
Roaring  Brook  half  a  mile  south  of  the  village,  the 
debris  of  whose  walls,  forgotten  by  the  hand  that  reared 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  211 

them,  are  seen  at  No.  Six,  favored  with  no  thought  of  their 
former  value  to  the  community. 

A  store  was  opened  at  the  Corners  in  1820  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Drinker  Turnpike  ;  but  the  village,  consist- 
ing of  "but  four  houses,  had  but  a  negative  existence  until 
the  Pennsylvania  Coal  Company,  in  1847-8,  turned  the 
sterile  pasture-fields  around  it  into  a  town  liberal  in 
the  extent  of  its  territory  and  diversified  by  every  variety 
of  life. 

The  immense  machine-shops  of  this  company,  concen- 
trating and  fostering  a  vast  amount  of  superior  mechani- 
cal skill,  are  located  at  No.  Six,  and  serve  to  give  Dunmore 
additional  note  and  character  as  a  business  village.  In 
fact,  Dunmore  can  congratulate  itself  not  so  much  upon 
the  internal  wealth  of  its  hills,  as  upon  the  vigor  of  the 
men  who  furrowed  them  out,  and  thus  encouraged  a  town 
at  this  time  deriving  its  daily  inspirations  wholly  from  this 
source.  While  Gen.  John  Ewen,  President  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania Coal  Company,  especially  looks  after  its  affairs  in 
New  York  with  a  zeal  assuring  his  courage  and  fidelity, 
the  general  superintendence  of  the  entire  works  in  Penn- 
sylvania has  been  exercised  by  John  B.  Smith,  of  Dun- 
more,  through  an  administration  of  nearly  twenty  years, 
in  a  manner  so  discreet,  popular,  and  yet  withal  so  modest, 
as  jointly  to  advance  the  interests  of  the  company,  impart 
strength  of  development  to  Pittston,  Dunmore,  and  Haw- 
ley,  and  change  the  circumstances  and  fortunes  of  a  large 
class  of  men  employed  along  the  line  of  the  road,  who 
looked  and  trusted  to  industry  for  reward. 

Dunmore  is  now  an  incorporated  borough,  is  connected 
with  Scranton,  Hyde  Park,  and  Providence  by  a  street- 
railroad,  and  enjoys  an  aggregate  population  of  about 
five  thousand  souls. 

HISTORY    OF   SCRANTON. 

Nay-aug,  or  Roaring  Brook,  linked  together  by  suc- 
cessive rapids  and  falls  for  many  miles,  emerges  from  the 


212 


HISTORY    OK    THE 


water- shed  ding  crest  separating  the  Delaware  from  the 
Susquehanna,  and  forms  the  noisiest  tributary  of  the 
Lacka wanna,  which  it  enters  at  Scranton,  one  mile  below 
the  ancient  village  of  Capoose.  The  woodland  along  the 
brook,  unbroken  on  its  gorgeous  surface  save  by  the 
achievements  of  the  beaver,  whose  dams  and  villages 
deepened  many  a  curve,  had  no  fixed  tenantry  but  beasts 
of  prey  until  1788. 


NAY-AUO    FAM.9. 


Across  the  Lackawanna,  the  skin-clad  savages  had 
vanished  from  their  wigwams  with  a  sigh,  leaving  their 
fertile  meadows  to  be  tilled  by  men  efficient  in  industry, 
yet  indifferent  to  fear,  who  us<>d  the  jungle  now  marked 
by  Scranton,  to  return  the  visits  of  the  wolf  and  the  bear 
coming  often  to  thorn  unannounced.  Although  the  great 
war-path  from  the  Indian  villages  on  the  Delaware  to  the 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  213 

tribes  strolling  over  Wyoming,  intelligence  of  which 
had  been  early  gained  of  the  wandering  bowmen,  entered 
Capoose  at  the  eddy  affording  moorage  for  the  warrior' s 
canoe,  no  one  looked  upon  the  tamarack  swamp,  now  hid 
in  the  interior  of  Scranton,  as  suitable  for  a  dwelling-place, 
while  the  richer  lands  west  of  the  Lackawanna,  more 
easily  cared  for,  invited  occupancy  and  tillage. 

Philip  Abbott  was  the  first  settler  in  "Deep  Hollow," 
as  this  place  was  designated  from  1788  until  1798,  when  it 
took  the  name  of  Slocum  Hollow.  While  the  month  of 
May  charmed  the  glen  with  its  foliage  and  fragrance,  Mr. 
Abbott  marked  out  his  clearing.  On  a  ledge  of  rocks, 
washed  by  the  brook  whose  waters  it  overlooked,  near 
where  stands  the  old  Slocum  House,  rose  from  the  up- 
rolled  logs  the  first  cabin  in  the  Hollow.  It  was  simply 
a  log  hut  or  pen  covered  with  boughs,  formed  but  a  single 
room,  occupied  in  great  part  by  a  huge  fire-place  four  or 
five  feet  in  width  and  as  many  in  depth,  filled  in  the  long 
evenings  of  winter  with  great  sticks  of  wood  before  a 
back-log,  which  furnished  both  light  and  warmth  to  the 
hardy  inmates.  Philip  was  a  native  of  Connecticut,  had 
emigrated  to  Wyoming  Valley  with  the  Yankees  before 
the  Revolution,  owned  property  under  the  Connecticut 
title,  which  he  transferred  to  his  brother  James,  both  of 
whom  were  expelled  by  the  Tories  and  Indians  in  1778. 

The  settlers  in  Providence  Township  in  1788  were  lim- 
ited in  numbers,  yet  their  necessities  sometimes  pressing, 
found  expression  in  the  settlement  of  Deep  Hollow.  Corn 
and  rye  raised  in  the  valley,  had  to  be  carried  twenty 
miles  to  mill  in  Wyoming  Valley,  or  half  cracked  by  the 
pestle  and  mortar,  and  eaten  almost  whole.  The  wants  of 
the  inhabitants,  multiplying  gradually  by  the  devel- 
opment of  the  settlement,  and  other  causes  wonderfully 
productive  here  in  the  wild  woods,  suggested  to  the  prac- 
tical mind  of  Mr.  Abbott  the  erection  of  a  grist-mill  upon 
the  Roaring  Brook.  Its  waters  were  ample  in  volume  and 
power ;  a  dam  easy  of  construction  along  its  rocky 


HISTORY   OF    THE 

grottoes.  The  Lackawanna,  spanned  by  no  bridge,  could 
generally  be  forded  during  the  summer  months,  unless 
swollen  by  rains  ;  in  winter  an  ice-bridge  favored  com- 
munication with  the  farmers  living  across  the  stream. 

The  construction  of  the  mill  was  marked  by  strong  sim- 
plicity. One  millstone  wrought  from  the  granite  of  an 
adjoining  ledge,  slightly  elevated  by  an  iron  spindle, 
revolved  upon  its  nether  stone  as  rudely  and  firmly  ad- 
justed upon  a  rock.  A  belt  cut  from  skin,  half  wrapped 
on  the  drum  of  the  water-wheel,  passing  over  the  spin- 
dle with  a  twist,  formed  the  running  gear  of  a  mill  ful- 
filling the  expectations  of  its  projector,  arid  the  hopes 
of  those  encouraging  its  erection.  The  mill  building, 
upheld  by  saplings  firmly  placed  in  the  earth,  was  roofed 
and  sided  by  slabs  hewn  from  trees  and  affixed  by  wooden 
pins  and  withes.  Nails  comprised  no  part  of  its  con- 
struction, nor  did  the  sound  of  the  mallet  and  chisel 
take  part  in  the  triumph  of  its  completion.  No  por- 
tion of  the  mill  surpassed  its  bolt  in  novelty.  A  large 
deer-skin,  well  tanned  and  stretched  upon  poles,  perfora- 
ted sieve-like  with  holes,  made  partial  separation  of  the 
flour  from  the  coarser  bran.  The  strong  arm  of  the  miller 
or  the  customer  worked  the  bolt.  An  old  gentleman,  now 
deceased,  informed  the  writer  many  years  ago,  that  when 
he  was  a  mere  lad  "he  often  went  to  Abbott's  mill  with 
his  father,  and  that  while  the  corn  was  being  ground 
the  old  man  and  the  miller  got  jolly  on  whisky  punches 
in  the  house,  while  he  was  compelled  to  stay  in  the  mill 
to  shake  the  meal  through  the  bolt/'  So  primitive  and 
unique  was  the  construction  of  this  corn-cracker,  without 
tools  or  machinery,  that  it  simply  broke  the  kernels  of 
corn  into  a  samp-meal,  which  made  a  kind  of  food  very 
popular  in  the  earlier  history  of  the  valley. 

The  grist-mill,  maintaining  and  even  increasing  its  im- 
portance among  the  yeomanry  scattered  along  the.  liver, 
needed  additional  capital  and  labor  to  arrange  and  enlarge 
its  capacity.  These  requirements  came  with  James  Abbott, 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.         .  215 

in  October  of  this  year,  and  with  Reuben  Taylor  in  the 
spring  of  1789,  both  of  whom,  with  Philip  Abbott,  became 
equal  partners  in  the  mill.  Mr.  Taylor  built  a  double  log- 
house  on  the  bank  of  the  brook,  below  the  cabin  of 
Abbott,  which  was  the  second  dwelling  erected  in  the 
Hollow:  Owing  to  the  want  of  glass,  its  high,  small  win- 
dows, like  all  the  cabins  of  the  froritierman,  gave  place 
to  skins  from  the  forests.  Doors,  beds,  and  blankets,  and 
sometimes  clothes,  were  made  from  the  same  rich  untanned 
material.  The  forest  trees  in  the  forks  of  the  two  streams, 
yielding  to  the  united  assaults  of  ax  and  firebrand,  opened 
a  strip  of  land  for  the  reception  of  wheat  and  corn,  bring- 
ing forth  its  maiden  crop  in  1789.  John  Howe  and  his 
unmarried  brother  Seth,  animated  by  the  hope  that  inde- 
pendence would  come  from  a  life  of  honesty  and  labor, 
purchased  the  rights  and  good-will  of  the  former  owners, 
and  moved  into  the  thatched  dwelling  vacated  by  Mr. 
Taylor.  On  the  uplands  known  throughout  the  valley 
as  the  "Uncle  Joe  Griffin  farm,"  Mr.  Taylor,  after  rescu- 
ing a  few  acres  from  the  woodlands,  disposed  of  his  place 
for  a  trifle  because  of  its  seeming  worthlessness. 

The  first  saw-mill  built  in  Providence  Township  was 
planned  on  Stafford  Meadow  Brook,  half  a  mile  below 
Scranton,  in  1790,  by  Capt.  John  Stafford,  from  whom  the 
stream  derived  its  name. 

While  the  farmers  living  around  Capoose  enjoyed  the 
prosperity  and  rustic  comforts  they  themselves  had  created, 
little  or  no  progress  toward  enlarging  the  settlement  at  the 
Hollow  had  been  made.  No  building  of  a  public  charac- 
ter, neither  school  nor  a  meeting-house  had  yet  been  fos- 
tered within  the  limits  of  Capoose,  Providence,  or  the 
Hollow.  The  Lackawanna  led  on  its  way,  unvexed  by 
dam  or  bridge.  In  1796,  Joseph  Fellows,  Sen.,  a  man  of 
great  resolution  and  intelligence,  who  had  just  gained  a 
residence  on  the  Hyde  Park  hill- side,  aided  by  the  farm- 
ers of  Capoose,  placed  a  bridge  across  the  river,  with  a 
single  span.  The  plank  used  upon  it  was  the  first  pro- 


216  HISTORY    OF    THE 

dnction  of  Stafford's  mill.  It  was  located  on  the  flats, 
where  the  slackened  waters  are  still  crossed  by  the 
throng. 

That  part  of  the  certified  Township  of  Providence 
now  occupied  by  Hyde  Park,  originally  reserved  by 
the  Susquehanna  Company  for  religious  and  school  pur- 
poses, was  settled  in  1794,  by  William  Bishop,  a  Baptist 
clergyman  of  some  eccentricity  of  character,  whose  log- 
quarters,  fixed  on  the  parsonage  lot  overlooking  Capoose, 
in  its  rural  simplicity  stood  where  now  stands  Judge 
Merrifield's  dwelling.  Most  of  the  land  about  the  central 
portion  of  this  thrifty  village  was  cleared  by  the  Dolphs. 
In  1795,  Aaron  Dolph  rolled  up  his  small  log-house  upon 
the  present  site  of  the  Hyde  Park  hotel  ;  his  brother 
Jonathan  then  chopped  and  logged  off  the  Washburn 
and  Knapp  farm,  while  the  lands  at  Fellows  Corner  were 
brought  to  light  and  culture  by  Moses  Dolph.  The  earli- 
est house  of  entertainment  or  tavern  in  Hyde  Park  was 
opened  and  kept  by  Jonathan  Dolph.  In  1810,  Philip 
Heermans,  influenced  by  the  community,  which  required 
a  public  point  at  which  to  hold  town  meetings  and  enjoy 
the  largest  liberty  of  franchise,  turned  his  house  into  a 
tavern,  where  the  spirit  of  frolic  sometimes  mingled  with 
the  more  sober  duties  of  the  assemblage.  Elections  have 
been  held  at  this  place  ever  since.  On  the  cold  soil  and 
bleak  hill  north  of  Dunmore,  Charles  Dolph,  another 
brother,  moved  into  the  forest,  where  he  sowed  and 
reaped  in  due  season. 

The  joint  and  double  advantage  of  water-power  and 
timber  everywhere  found  along  the  Roaring  Brook  from 
its  mouth  up  to  its  head-springs  amidst  the  evergreens  of 
the  Pocono,  could  neither  be  overlooked  nor  resisted  by 
Ebenezer  and  Benjamin  Slocum,  who  purchased  of  the 
Howes,  in  July,  1798,  the  undivided  land  of  Slocum  Hol- 
low. The  father  of  the  Slocums  was  Ebenezer  Slocum, 
Sen.  He  had  emigrated  to  Wyoming  Valley  previous  to 
the  massacre,  was  shot  and  scalped  by  the  Indians,  near 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  217 

Wilkes  Barre  Fort,  in  December,  1778,  with  Isaac  Tripp, 
Sen. 

A  domestic  tragedy,  casting  a  spirit  of  melancholy  over 
the  "brook-side  cabin,  hastened  and  impelled  the  transfer 
of  the  property.  Lydia,  the  eldest  born  of  John  Howes, 
depressed  by  some  disappointed  visions  of  girlhood,  was 
found  dead  in  her  chamber,  having  hanged  herself  with  a 
garter  attached  to  her  bedpost.  The  effect  of  this  suicide 
— the  first  in  the  valley — removed  every  speculating  con- 
sideration or  cavil  from  a  trade  which  placed  the  mill  and 
the  wild  acres  around  it  into  the  hands  of  the  Slocums. 

Benjamin  was  a  single  man ;  he  afterward  married  Miss 
Phebe  La  Fronse.  Ebenezer  married  a  daughter  of  Dr. 
Joseph  Davis,  one  of  the  most  eccentric  medical  men  ever 
known  in  the  Lackawanna  Valley.  "He  was  not"  in  the 
language  of  an  octogenarian  familiar  with  his  oddities  five- 
and-sixty  years  ago,  "a  great  metapJiy steal  doctor  but  a 
wonderful  sargant  doctor."  Dr.  Davis  died  in  Slocum 
Hollow  in  1830,  aged  98  years. 

There  were  now  but  two  houses  in  the  Hollow,  and  only 
that  number  of  grist-mills  from  Nanticoke  northward  to 
the  State  line. 

The  Slocums,  young,  strong,  and  ambitious,  infused 
new  elements  into  the  settlement.  They  named  the  place 
Unionmlle,  but  the  name,  having  no  descriptive  interpre- 
tation or  bearing  to  the  glen,  readily  gave  way  to  that  of 
Slocum' s  Hollow,  or  Slocum  Hollow.  In  1799,  after  the 
mill,  necessarily  rugged  in  its  interior  and  external  fea- 
tures, had  been  improved,  enlarged,  and  a  distillery  added 
thereto,  Ebenezer  Slocum  and  his  partner,  James  Duwain, 
built  a  saw-mill  a  little  above  the  grist-mill.  A  smith 
shop,  built  from  faultless  logs,  rose  from  the  margin  of  the 
creek,  and  the  sound  of  the  anvil,  carried  afar,  blended 
joyfully  with  the  song  of  the  noisy  water.  Two  or  three 
additional  houses,  built  for  the  workmen,  the  saw  and  the 
grist  mill,  one  cooper  shop,  with  the  smith  shop  and  the 
distillery,  formed  the  total  village  of  Slocum  Hollow  or 


218  HISTORY   OF   TIIK 

Scranton  in  1800.  Both  dams  were  swept  away  by  the 
spring  freshet  of  this  year,  exhausting  the  courage  of  Mr. 
Duwain,  who  forthwith  retired  from  partnership  ;  Benja- 
min Slocum  taking  his  place. 

The  interests  of  the  community  suffered  but  little,  as 
the  dams  were  promptly  built  by  the  aid  of  a  bee,  which 
called  together  every  farmer  in  the  township.  The  grist- 
mill was  patronized  far  and  near.  Farmers  twenty  miles 
away  sometimes  sought  the  mill  with  their  grists,  and 
when  the  work  was  pressing  on  the  farm  at  home,  they 
tarried  and  toiled  while  the  wife,  heroic  and  devoted,  went 
to  mill  on  horseback,  with  no  equipage  grander  than  the 
pillion. 

The  Pittston  division  of  the  valley  owes  no  more  kind 
remembrance  to  Dr.  Win.  Hooker  Smith  for  his  vigorous 
efforts  to  extract  iron  from  its  hills,  than  the  Scranton  por- 
tion of  it  concedes  to  the  elder  Slocum  brothers  for  the 
erection  of  the  original  iron -forge  in  the  Hollow  in  1800. 
Low  down  on  the  bank  of  the  brook,  beside1  the  waterfall 
and  yet  above  the  flood,  grew  up  the  forge  and  trip-ham- 
mer, which,  fed  with  ore  gathered  from  gullies,  brought 
forth  the  molten  product  in  abundance. 

The  old  landmark  of»  Slocum  Hollow,  cherished  with 
pride  by  the  old  settler,  is  the  old  "Slocum  House"  yet 
standing  by  the  creek,  with  its  stone  basement  and  broad 
long  stoop,  as  proudly  as  in  days  of  yore.  It  is  the  oldest 
structure  in  Scranton,  was  built  in  the  fall  of  1805  by 
Ebenezer  Slocum,  well  preserved  even  to  its  capacious 
hearth  where  the  fagot  blazed  and  reflected  back  the 
light  of  smiling  faces  half  a  century  ago,  where  the  jest 
and  the  song  went  around  and  the  old  hall  rang  to  the 
very  roof.  The  second. frame  house  in  the  Hollow  was 
built  by  Benjamin  Slocum.  Facing  the  brook,  with  its 
low  porch  extending  along  its  entire  front,  it  offered  an 
admirable  view  of  the  forge  and  the  sturdy  artisans  around 
it.  With  all  these  improvements  along  a  narrow  strip  of 
clearing,  Slocum  Hollow  was  yet  comparatively  a  wilder- 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEV. 


219 


ness.  Deer,  bear,  and  even  panthers  were  hunted  and 
killed  here  as  late  as  1816.  Lands  now  occupied  by  the 
massive  Round  House  and  the  Depots  of  the  Delaware, 
Lackwanna,  and  Western  Railroad,  were  cleared  of  the 
fallen  tree  and  sown  with  wheat  in  1816.  Six  years 
previous,  a  chopping  had  been  made  where  Lackawanna 
Avenue  runs,  but  the  wolves  issuing  from  their  fastnesses 
in  the  tamarack  jungle  adjoining,  prevented  the  Slocums 
from  keeping  sheep  for  their  much-needed  wool. 


THI    OLD    SLOCtTM    HOUSE. 


Elisha  Hitchcock,  a  young  mill- wright  from  New  Hamp- 
shire, made  his  way  into  Slocum  Hollow  in  1809.  He 
repaired  the  mill,  married  Ruth  the  daughter  of  Benjamin 
Slocum  in  1811,  an  excellent  lady  who  still  survives  him. 
Mr.  Hitchcock  was  an  honest  man,  who  never  wronged 
his  fellow,  and  beloved  by  all  for  his  exemplary  qualities  ; 
he  died  a  few  years  since. 

A  second  still  was  put  into  operation  in  1S11.  The 
tranquil  succession  of  abundant  harvests  throughout 
Capoose — the  absence  of  an  approachable  market  for  the 
grain,  thrashed  out  by  the  flail — the  frequent  calls  for 
whisky  coming  from  Easton,  Paupack,  Bethany,  Mon- 


220  HISTOKY    OF    THK 

trose,  and  the  high  "banks  of  Berwick,  abating  none  of  its 
value  and  inspirations  as  a  commercial  agent,  served  to 
welcome  the  accession  of  the  new  still  as  a  public  bene- 
faction worthy  of  the  unhesitated  and  active  patronage 
and  favor  accorded  to  it  by  every  member  of  society. 

Luzerne  County,  as  now  bounded,  had  but  two  post- 
offices  in  1810 — Wilkes  Barre  and  Kingston.  In  1811 
four  were  established,  viz.:  at  Pittston,  Nescopeck,  Abing- 
ton,  and  Providence.  The  Providence  office  was  located 
in  Slocum  Hollow,  and  Benj.  Sloe um  appointed  post- 
master. The  inhabitants  of  the  valley  working  hard  for 
coarse  food  and  rustic  homespun,  sometimes  had  leisure 
to  visit  and  reflect,  but  few  books  or  papers  to  peruse. 
Scattered  through  Blakeley  or  over  the  mountain,  they 
enjoyed  no  mail  facilities  other  than  those  offered  by  this 
office,  until  the  establishment  of  another  one  in  Blakeley 
in  1824.  The  Slocum  Hollow  office  was  removed  to 
Providence  in  this  year,  and  John  Vaughn  appointed 
postmaster.  The  same  year  William  MerrihVld  was  com- 
missioned postmaster  of  a  new  office  established  at 
Hyde  Park.  The  mail  was  carried  once  a  week  on  horse- 
back from  Easton  to  Bethany  by  Zephaniah  Knapp,  Esq., 
ma  Wilkes  Barre  and  Providence ;  the  entire  mail 
matter  for  the  Lackawanna  settlements  bore  no  compari- 
son, in  quantity,  to  the  amount  that  very  many  business 
firms  in  the  same  vicinity  are  now  daily  the  recipients  of. 

Frances  Slocum,  who  was  taken  captive  by  the  Indians 
in  Wyoming  Valley,  in  1778,  and  whose  subsequent  his- 
tory lias  been  made  familiar  by  Dr.  Peck  and  Miner,  was 
a  sister  of  Ebenezer  and  Benjamin.  When  she  was  caught 
up  in  the  arms  of  the  savage  that  had  just  scalped  a  lad 
with  the  knife  he  was  grinding  at  the  door,  a  painted  war- 
rior rushed  into  the  house  of  .Jonathan  Slocum  "and  took 
up  Ebenexer  Slocum,  a  little  boy.  The  mother  stepped 
up  to  the  savage,  and  reaching  for  the  child,  said:  'He 
can  do  you  no  good  ;  see,  he  is  lame.'  With  a  grim  smile, 
giving  up  the  "boy,  he  took  Frances,  her  daughter,  aged 


LACKAWANNA    VALLKY.  221 

a"bout  five  years,  gently  in  his  arms,  and  seizing  the 
younger  Kinsley  by  the  hand,  hurried  away  to  the  moun- 
tains."1 His  release  from  the  fickle  savage,  through  the 
adroitness  of  his  mother,  was  no  more  providential  than 
his  escape  from  as  horrible  a  death  in  1808.  Losing  his 
foothold  while  clearing  the  mill-race  of  drift-wood,  he  fell, 
and  was  carried  by  the  rushing  impulse  of  the  current 
down  the  stream  between  the  buckets  of  the  water-wheel 
before  he  was  rescued  by  his  faithful  negro.  Mr.  Slo- 
cum's  weight  exceeded  two  hundred,  and  yet,  through  this 
vise-like  space,  measuring  scant  six  inches,  he  was  forced 
with  so  little  injury  that  he  resumed  his  wonted  labor 
within  a  week !  Of  such  material,  plastic  yet  withe-like, 
was  made  the  men  who  carved  and  nursed  the  valley  in 
its  infancy. 

In  the  manufacture  of  iron,  no  advantage  was  taken  of 
the  coal  ramparts  by  the  creek,  because  no  knowledge  of 
its  use  for  this  purpose  had  reached  the  public  mind  until 
1836.  Charcoal,  made  in  the  turf-clad  pits  by  the  wood- 
side,  everywhere  at  the  furnaces  asserted  its  prerogative 
as  the  heating  agent.  In  fact,  the  timber  about  Scranton 
in  the  earlier  part  of  the  century  was  swept  away,  more 
especially  to  supply  the  charcoal  demand  of  Slocum's 
forge,  than  for  any  remunerative  gain  its  soil  promised 
to  the  cultivators  of  the  country. 

Iron  forges  and  furnaces  having  sprung  up  in  various 
sections  of  country  where  Slocum  Hollow  iron,  famous  for 
its  superior  texture,  had  been  favorably  known  and  used  ; 
the  dilapidated  state  of  the  works  in  use  for  six-and- 
twenty  years  ;  the  cost  of  transporting  ore  over  miles  of 
roads  sometimes  rendered  impassable  by  fallen  trees  or 
deepened  ruts ;  all  contributed  to  extinguish  the  forge-fire. 
The  last  iron  was  made  by  the  Sloe  urns  in  June,  1826 ; 
the  last  whisky  distilled  a  few  months  later.  Up  to  this 
time  these  primitive  iron-works  were,  in  the  hands  of 

1  Miner's  History,  p.  247. 


222  nisTOuv  OF  THE 

these  unobtrusive  men,  yielding  their  conquests  and  dif- 
fusing a  spirit  of  enterprise  amidst  accumulative  diffi- 
culties, in  a  valley  having  no  outlet  by  railroad,  no 
navigable  route  to  the  sea  other  than  shallow  waters  long 
skimmed  by  the  Indian's  canoe. 

Ebenezer  retired  from  business  in  1828  ;  in  1832,  full  of 
years,  peaceful,  trusting,  he  went  to  his  grave,  as  a  shock 
of  corn  fully  ripe  cometh  in,  in  its  season. 

Joseph  and  Samuel  Slocum,  full  of  youthful  enthusi- 
asm, began  to  carry  on  farming  and  mill  interests  with  the 
same  spirit  of  earnestness  distinguishing  the  elder  Slocums. 

The  obliteration  of  the  still  and  forge  abridged  the  im- 
portance and  checked  the  growth  of  the  village.  Three 
roads,  or  rather  two,  cut  through  the  woods,  too  narrow 
for  wagons  to  pass  each  other  only  in  places  prepared  for 
turn-outs,  diverged  from  the  Hollow :  one  from  Alls- 
worth's,  at  Dunmore,  led  to  Fellows'  Corners;  while  the 
other  crossed  the  swamp,  along  what  is  now  Wyoming 
Avenue,  on  fallen  logs,  and  found  its  way  by  Griffin's 
Corners  to  the  acknowledged  political  center  of  the  valley 
— Ilazorville  village.  Upper  and  Lower  Providence,  Ab- 
ington,  Blakeley,  Greenfield,  Scott,  and  Drinker's  Beech, 
offering  choice  wild  lands  to  all  seeking  a  competency  by 
a  life  of  frugal  industry,  became  the  home  of  men  whose 
hardihood,  hospitality,  and  stanch  virtues,  carried  culti- 
vation and  thrift  into  the  borders  of  the  forest,  while  Slo- 
cum  Hollow,  strangely  intermingled  with  rock  and  morass, 
offered  little  to  the  husbandman,  and  nothing  to  the  new- 
comer. 

An  effort  was  made  in  1817  to  improve  the  navigation 
of  the  Lackawanna,  and  a  company  incorporated  at  the 
time  for  this  purpose  ;  nothing  more  was  done.  In  1819, 
the  late  Henry  W.  Drinker — than  whom  no  man  surpassed 
in  readiness  to  aid  the  needy  pioneer  or  develop  the 
resources  of  the  country — explored  the  mountains  and 
valleys  from  the  Susquehanna  at  Pittston  to  the  Dela- 
ware Water  Gap,  with  a  view  of  connecting  the  two 


L  ACS  AW  ANNA    VALLEY.  223 

points  by  a  railroad  to  be  operated  over  the  Leliigh  Moun- 
tain by  hydraulic  power  achieved  from  the  waters  of 
Tobyhanna  and  the  Lehigh. 

While  the  Slocum  Hollow  settlement,  being  on  the  line 
of  the  proposed  road,  was  expected  to  acquire  some  in- 
creased activity  mutually  advantageous,  the  interests  of 
Drinker5  s  Beech,  watched  carefully  by  Mr.  Drinker,  were 
more  especially  aimed  at  by  the  projectors  of  the  road. 
A  charter  was  granted  in  March,  1826  ;  simultaneously  a 
charter  was  obtained  by  Wm.  Meredith,  for  a  railroad  to 
run  up  the  Lackawanna  to  the  State  line  from  Providence 
village.  Both  were  projected  upon  the  plan  of  inclined 
planes.  r, 

The  four  pioneers  obtaining  railroad  charters  in  the 
Lackawanna  Valley  were  Win.  and  Maurice  Wurts,  Henry 
W.  Drinker,  and  Wm.  Meredith.  The  first  two  gentlemen 
banded  the  mountain' s  brow  with  the  flat  rail ;  the  last, 
owing  to  needless  antipathies  which  aroused  every  im- 
pulse of  selfishness,  and  embittered  even  the  calm  hour  of 
triumph  with  its  remembrance,  were  not  able  to  infuse 
into  charters  easily  obtained,  advantage  to  themselves  or 
to  the  places  they  sought  to  enrich  and  develop.  These 
men  were  powerful  in  the  day  of  first  railroads  ;  polished, 
opulent,  and  educated,  and  had  there  been  united  and 
harmonious  action  among  them,  the  valley  would  hardly 
have  been  so  reluctant  in  yielding  the  wherewithal  to 
gladden  the  firesides  of  the  land.  Drinker,  averse  to  a 
strife  fatal  to  his  cherished  projects,  shared  none  of  the 
prejudices  against  the  men  who  had  rendered  practicable 
an  eastern  outlet  from  the  valley. 

The  North  Branch  Canal,  fed  by  the  idle  waters  of  the 
Lackawanna,  was  begun  in  Pittston  in  1828  by  the  State, 
and  looked  to  as  the  great  commercial  avenue  to  the  sea. 
The  citizens  of  old  Providence  Township,  restrained  by 
the  mountain's  wall  from  all  hope  of  public  intercourse 
with  Philadelphia  or  New  York  by  a  continuous  railroad, 
withal  too  modest  to  expect  a  canal  at  the  expense  of  the 


224:  II1STOKY    OF    THE 

State,  asked  the  Legislature,  having  but  a  negative  repre- 
sentation from  the  valley,  to  build  "t\\v  feeder  of  this 
canal,  or  some  other  improvement  up  the  valley  as  far  as 
would  be  thought  of  service  to  our  citizens  and  the 
Commonwealth." 

This  scheme  naturally  excited  the  public  mind,  because 
its  prosecution  under  any  circumstances  Avould  reach  out 
benefits  to  every  husbandman  jealous  of  his  own  rights, 
yet  taught  by  invidious  men  to  distrust  the  power  of 
i;  incorporated  companies."  * 

The  coal-clad  slopes  enjoyed  repose.  The  cesarean 
drill  had  not  yet  fallen  into  the  strong  arms  of  the  skillful 
miner.  Up  in  the  Carbondale  glen,  under  the  shelter  of  a 
ledge  of  rocks  forming  the  western  bank  of  the  Lacka- 
wanna,  a  few  hundred  tons  of  surface  coal  had  been  mined 
by  the  Wurts  brothers  as  an  experimental  measure.  The 
operations  of  these  weather-beaten,  persecuted,  yet  hope- 
ful men,  were  not  recognized  by  the  inhabitants  of  the 
lower  townships  as  of  any  practical  utility  to  any  one 
but  the  miners  themselves.  Wood  was  abundant,  and 
every'hill-side  offered  fuel  to  the  woodman  who  chose  to 
gather  it  without  cost.  Coal  had  neither  domestic  value 
nor  sale  at  home  ;  no  market  abroad.  A  brighter  aspect  at 
length  struggled  its  way  into  the  valley,  and  [the  solitude 
of  Slocum  Hollow  was  gone. 

u  About  1830,"  says  Mr.  Joseph  J.  Albright,  in  a  note 
to  the  writer,  "at  the  suggestion  of  Geo.  M.  Hollenback 
I  made  the  trip  to  Slocurn  Hollow  for  the  purpose  of 
examining  the  iron  ore,  coal,  &c.,  with  a  view  of  pur- 
chasing from  Alva  Heerrnans  the  property  ( now 
Scrauton)  for  $10  per  acre.  I  took  a  box  of  the  iron  ore 
on  top  of  a  stage  to  Northampton  County,  where  I  was 
engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  iron,  and  I  contend  that  I 
shook  the  first  tree,  if  I  failed  to  gather  its  fruit.  1  believe 
the  box  of  ore  thus  transported  was  the  means  of  attract- 

1  See  "  Wilkes  Barre  Advocate,"  December  9,  1838. 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  2^7 

ing  the  attention  of  Messrs.  Henry,  Scranton,  &c.,  to  this 
tract  These  facts  are  known  and  recognized  by  S.  T. 
Scranton ;  had  I  been  successful  in  persuading  Dr. 
Philip  Walter  and  others  to  join  me  in  its  purchase,  I 
might  have  gathered  ample  reward." 

Drinker' s  route  for  a  railroad  from  the  Delaware  to  the 
Susquehanna,  surveyed  in  1831  by  Maj.  Beach,  awakened 
neither  interest  nor  inquiry  among  the  yeomanry  having 
scarcely  means  to  meet  the  yearly  taxes  or  support  families 
generally  large  and  needy,  and  yet,  strange  as  it  may 
appear,  the  initial  impulse  toward  a  village  at  Slocum 
Hollow  came  from  the  friends  of  this  project.  William 
Henry,1  one  of  the  original  commissioners  named  in  the 
charter,  was  especially  enthusiastic  and  active  in  his 
efforts  to  build  up  a  town  at  this  point  for  the  purpose  of 
advancing  the  interests  of  this  unattractive  project.  His 
knowledge  of  the  country  was  too  thorough  and  general 

1  A.  tradition  in  the  "Henry"  family  exists,  where  the  Indian  character 
appears  in  a  more  amiable  light  than  that  exhibited  on  the  Western  plains.  "  My 
grandfather,"  writes  William  Henry  in  a  note  to  the  author,  "  William  Henry, 
late  of  Lancaster.  Pa.,  in  1755  was  an  officer  serving  under  General  Washington, 
at  General  Braddock's  defeat  near  Fort  Pitt ;  he  there  saw  a  well-made,  athletic 
Indian  in  jeopardy  of  his  life,  aud  by  extraordinary  effort  and  means,  saved  him  ; 
in  the  recognition,  names  were  exchanged,  and  a  friendship  established ;  parting 
soon  after  they  never  met  afterward,  and  nothing  was  known  of  the  Indian  until 
the  commencement  of  the  Revolution  in  1774,  when  the  rescued  man  called  and 
made  the  acquaintance  of  my  father,  at  Christian  Spring,  Northampton  County,  as 
the  Chief  Killbuck,  whose  life,  he  stated,  was  saved  by  Maj.  Henry,  relating  all 
the  incidents  attending  the  disastrous  battle-field,  remarking  that  while  ordinarily 
he  did  not  expect  to  live  many  more  years,  but  that  '  Indian  never  forgets,'  his 
own  people  and  family  would  know  how  to  pay  a  debt  of  gratitude. 

"In  the  year  1794  my  father  and  other  gentlemen  were  commissioned  by  the 
U.  S.  Government  to  locate  a  quantity  of  lands  donated  to  the  '  Society  for 
propagating  the  Gospel  among  the  Heathen'  in  what  then  was  Indian  country 
and  a  wilderness;  fortunately  th ere  resided  the  descendants  of  Chief  Killbuck. 
The  surveying  party  nof  knowing  this,  however,  were  the  grateful  recipients  of 
bear's  meat,  venison,  and  other  game,  through  the  instrumentality  of  the  Chief 
'  White  Eye,'  who  subsequently  made  himself  known  as  the  leading  successor 
of  the  Sachem  Killbuck  and  his  gratitude  toward  the  son,  whose  father  saved  the 
life  of  his  chief;  about  three  months  were  occupied  in  the  woods  on  the  banks  of 
the  Muskingum  in  safety.  A  fuller  detail  and  historical  account,  agreeing  in 
every  particular  with  the  above,  was  given  by  the  Indian  family,  now  in  Kansas, 
to  Col.  Alexander,  late  the  editor  of  a  paper  at  Pittston,  then  resident  in  Kansas; 


228  IIISTOliY    O'.'    THE 

to  be  without  its  stimulating  influence,  and  yet  this 
acquaintance  of  the  mineralogical  character  of  the  western 
terminus  of  the  route  only  enabled  him  to  give  decided 
expression  to  views  neither  adopted  nor  accepted  by  his 
friends.  , 

Messrs.  Drinker  and  Henry,  undismayed  by  the  cold, 
solemn  avowal  of  the  inhabitants  occupying  the  valleys 
of  the  Delaware  and  the  Susquehanna,  that  no  such  road 
was  possible  or  necessary  to  their  social  condition,  taking 
advantage  of  the  speculative  wave  of  183G,  called  the 
friends  of  the  road  to  Easton  at  this  time  to  devise  a  prac- 
tical plan  of  action.  Repeated  exertions  in  this  direction 
had  hitherto  yielded  a  measure  of  ridicule  not  calculated 
to  inspire  great  hope?  of  success.  At  this  meeting,  pro- 
longed for  days,  Mr.  Henry  assured  the  members  of  the 
board  that  if  the  old  furnace  of  Slpeum's  at  the  Hollow 
could  be  reanimated  and  sustained  a  few  years,  a  village 
would  spring  up  between  the  unguarded  passes  of  the 
Moosic,  calling  for  means  of  communication  with  the  sea- 
board less  inhospitable  and  tardy  than  the  loitering  stage- 
coach. This  novel  plan  to  achieve  success  for  the  road, 
although  urged  with  ability  and  candor,  met  the  approval 
of  but  a  single  man.  This  was  Edward  Armstrong,  a 
gentleman  of  great  benevolence  and  courtesy,  living  on 
the  Hudson.  In  the  acquisition  of  land  in  the  Lackawanna 
Valley,  or  the  erection  of  furnaces  and  forges  upon  it,  he 
avowed  himself  ready  to  share  with  Mr.  Henry  any  re- 

by  him  a  friendly  message  from  them  was  received  in  remembrance  of  their  and 
our  fathers;  conclusively  to  show  that  an  'Indian  doos  not  forget.' 

"  The  appellation  of  '  Henry '  is  at  this  day  the  middle  name  of  every  member 
of  the  family,  to  wit: — 

Moses    Henry    Killbuck.       • 

Joseph       "  " 

William       " 

Josephine  •'  " 

Sarah          '•  " 

John  "  " 

Rachel 
"These  are  all  well-known  persons  in  the  West  to  tho  '  Moravian  Missionaries.'" 


LACKAWANXA    VALLEY.  229 

sponsibility,  profit,  or  risk.  During  the  spring  and  sum- 
mer of  1839,  Mr.  Henry  examined  every  rod  of  ground 
along  the  river  from  Pittston  to  Cobb's  Gap  to  ascertain 
the  most  judicious  location  for  the  works. 

Under  the  wall  of  rock,  cut  in  twain  by  the  dasli  of  the 
Nay-aug,  a  quarter  of  a  mile  above  its  mouth,  favoring 
by  its  altitude,  the  erection  and  feeding  of  a  stack,  a  place 
was  well  chosen.  It  was  but  a  few  rods  above  the  debris 
of  Slocum's  forge,  and  like  that  earlier  affair  enjoyed 
within  a  stone1  s  throw  every  essential  material  for  its  con- 
struction and  working. 

After  the  decease  of  Mr.  Slocum,  the  forge  grounds 
changing  hands  repeatedly  for  a  mere  nominal  consider- 
ation, had  fallen  into  possession  of  William  Merrifield, 
Zeno  Albro.,  and  William  Ricketson  of  Hyde  Park,  and  had 
relapsed  into  common  pasturage.  Mr.  J.  J.  Albright  was 
offered  500  acres  of  the  Scranton  lands  for  $5,000  upon  a 
long  credit  in  1836  ;  for  such  land  that  figure  was  consider- 
ed too  high  at  that  time. 

In  March,  1840,  Messrs.  Henry  and  Armstrong  pur- 
chased 503  acres  for  $8,000,  or  about  $16  per  acre.  The 
fairest  farm  in  the  valley,  under-veined  with  coal,  had  no 
opportunity  of  refusing  the  same  surprising  equivalent. 
Mr.  Henry  gave  a  draft  at  thirty  days  on  Mr.  Armstrong, 
in  whom  the  title  was  to  vest ;  before  its  maturity,  death 
came  to  Mr.  Armstrong,  almost  unawares.  He  had  im- 
bued -the  enterprise,  by  his  manly  co-operation,  with  no 
vague  friendship  or  faith,  and  his  death,  at  this  time,  was 
regarded  as  especially  disastrous  to  the  interests  of  Slo- 
cum Hollow.  His  administrators,  looking  to  nothing  but 
a  quick  settlement  of  the  estate,  requested  him  to  forfeit 
the  contract  without  question  or  hesitancy.  Thus  baffled 
in.  a  quarter  little  anticipated,  Mr.  Henry  asked  and  ob- 
tained thirty  days'  grace  upon  the  non-accepted  draft, 
hoping  in  the  interim  to  find  another  shrewd  capitalist 
able  to  advance  the  purchase-money  and  willing  to  share 
in  the  affairs  of  the  contemplated  furnace.  The  late 


230  HISTORY   OF   THE 

lamented  Colonel  Geo.  "VV.  Scran  ton  and  Selden  T.  Scran- 
ton,  both  of  New  Jersey,  interested  by  tlie  earnest  and 
enthusiastic  representations  of  Mr.  Henry  regarding  the 
vast  and  varied  resources  of  the  Lacka wanna  Valley,  of 
which  no  knowledge  had  reached  them  before,  proposed 
to  add  Mr.  Sanford  Grant,  of  Belvidere,  to  a  party,  and 
visit  Slocum  Hollow. 

The  journey  from  Belvidere  to  the  present  site  of  Scran- 
ton  took  one  day  and  a  half  hard  driving,  and  was  well 
calculated  to  test  the  self-reliance  and  vigor  of  the  inex- 
perienced mountaineer.  The  Drinker  Turnpike,  stretch- 
ing its  weary  length  over  Pocono  Mountain  and  morass, 
enlivened  here  and  there  by  the  arrowy  trout-brook  or 
the  start  of  the  fawn,  brought  the  party  on  the  19th 
of  August,  1840,  to  the  half-opened  thicket  growing  over 
the  tract  where  now  Mr.  Archbald's  residence  is  seen. 
Securing  their  horses  under  the  shade  of  a  tree,  the  party, 
amazed  at  the  simple  wildness  of  a  country  where  green 
acres  were  looked  for  in  vain,  moved  down  the  bank 
of  Roaring  Brook  to  a  body  of  coal  whose  black  edge 
showed  the  fury  of  the  stream  when  sudden  rains  or 
thaws  raised  its  waters  along  the  narrow  channel.  None 
of  the  party  except  Mr.  Henry  had  ever  seen  a  coal-bed 
before.  Assisted  by  a  pick,  used  and  concealed  by  him 
weeks  before,  pieces  of  coal  and  iron  ore  were  exhumed 
for  the  inspection  of  the  party  about  to  turn  the  minerals, 
sparkling  amid  the  shrubs  and  wild  flowers,  to  some  more 
practical  account.  The  obvious  advantages  of  location, 
uniting  water-power  with  prospective  wealth,  were  exam- 
ined for  half  a  day  without  seeing  or  being  seen  by  a 
single  person. 

The  village  of  Slocum  Hollow,  in  1840,  yielded  the  palm 
to  the  surrounding  ones.  The  Slocum  house  and  its  hum- 
ble barn,  three  small  wooden  houses,  and  one  stone 
d \velling,  outliving  the  days  of  the  forge,  stood  above  its 
debris ;  a  grist-mill,  owned  by  Barton  Mott,  a  seveu-by- 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  231 

nine  school-house  squatting  on  the  ledge,  and  a  clattering 
saw-mill,  made  up  the  village  twenty-nine  years  ago. 

The  exterior  features  of  the  Slocum  property  were  any 
thing  but  attractive,  yet,  after  some  question  and  hesi- 
tancy, it  was  purchased  at  the  price  already  stipulated. 
Lackawanna  Valley  achieved  its  thrift  and  fame  from  this 
comparatively  trifling  purchase  of  but  yesterday,  and 
Scranton  dates  its  incipient  inspirations  toward  acquiring 
for  itself  a  place  and  a  name  from  August,  1840. 

The  company,  consisting  of  Colonel  George  W.  and  Sel- 
den  T.  Scranton,  Sanford  Grant,  William  Henry,  and 
Philip  H.  Mattes,  organizing  under  the  firm  of  Scrantons, 
Grant  &  Co.,  began  forthwith  the  construction  of  a  fur- 
nace, under  the  superintendency  of  Mr.  Henry,  whose 
family  immediately  removed  from  Stroudsburg  to  Hyde 
Park. 

None  of  the  older  portion  of  the  community  can  forget 
the  thriftless  appearance  of  the  four  villages  in  Providence 
Township,  exhibiting  no  reluctant  spirit  of  rivalry.  Hyde 
Park  contained  but  a  single  store,  where  the  post-office 
found  ample  quarters  in  a  single  pigeon  hole ;  a  small 
Christian  meeting-house  standing  by  the  road-side,  and  six 
or  eight  scattered  dwellings  along  the  single  roadway ; 
neither  physician,  lawyer,  nor  miner,  and  but  a  single  min- 
ister, without  a  church  of  his  own,  resided  within  its  pre- 
cincts. Providence,  known  far  and  wide  by  the  sobriquet 
of  Razormlle,  acknowledged  as  the  seat  of  government 
for  the  county,  had  a  dozen  houses,  two  stores  and  a 
post-office,  a  grist-mill  and  a  bridge,  an  ax  factory,  three 
doctors,  no  minister,  and  it  did  a  snug  business  in  the  way 
of  horse-racing  on  Sunday,  and  miscellaneous  traffic  with 
the  round-about  country  during  the  week.  Dunmore  was 
the  equal  of  Slocum  Hollow  in  the  number  of  its  dilapi- 
dated tenements,  sheltering  as  many  families.  Such  were 
the  towns  that  gave  a  negative  welcome  to  the  innovations 
of  the  unknown  "  Jerseyites,''  as  they  were  termed,  in 


232  HISTORY     OK    TIIZ 

half  derision,  by  people  hearing  of  their  search  and  pur- 
chase around  Capoose. 

New  men  naturally  introduced  new  names.  When  the 
white  man  first  strayed  into  the  valley,  no  other  name 
than  Capoose — an  Indian  signification  of  endearment — was 
heard  until  the  connection  of  the  Slocums  with  the  rough 
hollow,  in  1798,  opening  land  and  trade,  fixed  the  appel- 
lation of  Slocum  Hollow.  The  memorable  days  of  "  hard 
cider''  substituted  the  name  of  Harrison  for  that  of  Slo- 
cnm  Hollow.  The  Scrantons,  not  without  ambition  to 
popularize  a  name  never  dishonored,  assented  to  the  ex- 
change of  Harrison  for  Scrantonia.  With  the  growth  and 
triumphs  of  the  iron-works,  the  brief  vowels  ia  were 
erased,  leaving  plain  Scranton  in  possession  of  the  field. 
This  name  thus  serves  to  perpetuate  the  memories  of 
the  founders  of  the  town,  but  would  not  the  aboriginal 
Capoose  or  the  Indian  names  for  their  streams,  Nay-aug  or 
Lar-har-har-nar,  have  been  more  musical  and  appropriate  ? 

The  first  day's  work  on  the  Harrison  furnace  was  done 
September  11,  1840,  by  Mr.  Simeon  Ward.  During  the 
fall  and  winter  months  satisfactory  progress  attended  it. 
A  small  wooden  building,  afterward  enlarged  for  "Kres- 
ler's  Hotel,"'  was  erected  by  AV.  W.  Manness,  who  is  yet 
in  th<>  employ  of  the  company,  and  jointly  occupied  as  an 
office,  store,  and  dwelling.  It  was  afterward  torn  down 
to  make  room  for  the  blast-furnace  engine-house.  As  the 
spring  of  1841  opened,  tenant-houses  went  up,  and  work 
went  forward  without  cessation  or  abatement.  Mr.  Grant 
became  a  resident  of  Harrison,  with  his  family,  and  for 
many  years,  when  the  tide  was  low,  conducted  the  man- 
agement of  the  store  with  such  urbanity  and  studied 
regard  for  the  interests  of  all,  that  he  acquired  considera- 
tion and  popularity  among  the  yeomanry  of  the  county. 

The  interests  of  P.  II.  Mattes  were  represented  by  his 
son,  Charles  F.  Mattes,  who,  from  the  time  the  furnace  was 
put  in  successful  blast,  has  been  efficiently  engaged  at  the 
head  of  one  of  the  more  important  departments. 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  233 

The  liberal  doctrines  of  Methodism,  itinerated  and 
diffused  in  the  valley  as  early  as  1786,  were  rarely  prac- 
ticed, and  had  but  a  feeble  recognition  in  any  way  until 
1793.  "At  this  time,"  writes  the  venerable  Rev.  Dr. 
Peck,  "  William  Colbert,  a  pioneer  preacher,  visited 
Capouse,  and  preached  to  a  few  people  at  Brother  Howe's, 
and  lodged  at  Joseph  Waller's.  Howe  lived  in  Slocum 
Hollow,  and  Waller  on  the  main  road  in  or  near  what  is 
now  Hyde  Park.  In  1798  Daniel  Taylor's,  below  Hyde 
Park,  was  a  preaching  place.  For  years  subsequently 
the  preaching  was  at  Preserved  Taylor's,  who  lived  on 
the  hill -side  in  Hyde  Park,  near  the  old  Tripp  place. 
When  Mr.  Taylor  removed,  the  preaching  was  taken  to 
Razorville,  now  Providence,  and  the  preachers  were 
entertained  by  Elisha  Potter,  Esq.,  whose  wife  was  a  very 
exemplary  member  of  the  church.  Up  to  this  period, 
preaching  was  held  in  private  houses."  School-houses, 
moderate  in  capacity,  served  for  religious  purposes  until 
June,  1841,  when  a  subscription  was  raised  for  the 
purpose  of  building  a  "meeting-house"  at  some  suitable 
place  within  reach  of  missionaries  and  laymen.  The  great 
bulk  of  the  subscription  coming  from  Harrison  Iron 
Works,  governed  the  location  of  the  church,  which  was 
built  in  1842,  and  jointly  and  harmoniously  used  as  a 
place  of  worship  by  Methodists  and  Presbyterians  until  the 
latter  erected  a  place  of  their  own.  The  Methodists  have 
enjoyed  the  pastoral  labors  of  A.  H.  Schoonmaker,  Rev. 
Dr.  Peck,  B.  W.  Goram,  G.  C.  Bancroft,  J.  V.  Newell, 
J.  A.  Wood,  N".  W.  Everett,  arid  Byron  D.  Sturdevant. 

The  Presbyterians,  now  representing  so  much  of  the 
intelligence  and  wealth  of  the  Scranton  community,  had 
no  definite  organization  in  Scranton  until  February,  1842. 
In  1827  missionaries  were  employed  to  preach  at  Slocum 
Hollow  and  Razorville  twelve  times  a  year,  generally  in 
school-houses  and  barns,  and  sometimes  under  the  shelter 
of  a  friendly  tree.  Rev.  Cyrus  Gildersleeve,  John 
Dorrance,  and  the  bold,  blunt  Thomas  P.  Hunt,  were 


234  III8TOUY    OK    THE 

thus  employed  alternately.  The  success  attending  the 
Methodists  in  building  their  church  by  subscription,  ani- 
mated tin1  fewer  Presbyterians  to  a  similar  effort  in  the 
•same  direction.  The  pressure  of  poverty  among  the 
farmers  of  the  valley,  combined  with  the  weak  condition 
of  this  denomination,  having  \>\\i  four  members  at  Har- 
rison, influenced  the  committee  appointed  in  1844  to  select 
a  site  for  a  church,  to  decide  upon  Lackawanna,  three 
miles  below  Harrison,  as  the  place  best  calculated  to  favor 
the  majority  of  the  Presbyterians.  The  church,  built  in 
184C,  was  owned  in  common  by  the  members  at  Lacka- 
wanna and  Harrison.  This  latter  place  was  a  mere  sub- 
ordinate preaching  point,  and  yet  cared  for  so  well  by  the 
young,  gifted  Rev.  N.  G.  Parks,  that  in  1848  the  Scranton 
portion  of  this  organic  body,  acquiring  influence  and  inde- 
pendence with  the  development  of  the  village,  sought  a 
peaceful  separation,  and  at  once  asserted  its  strength  by 
the  erection  of  an  imposing  church,  costing  830,000, 
capable  of  seating  800  persons.  Since  Mr.  Park,  the 
Rev.  J.  D.  Mitchell,  John  F.  Baker,  and  the  Rev.  M.  J. 
Hickok,  have  all  creditably  officiated  within  its  walls. 
Mr.  Hickok,  whose  purity  of  mind  and  blameless  life 
endeared  him  to  all,  was  hopelessly  stricken  with  paralysis 
in  the  fall  of  1867,  thus  leaving  the  church  without  an 
active  pastor. 

The  spiritual  wants  of  the  Catholics  in  Scranton  were 
first  looked  after  by  the  Rev.  P.  Pendergrast  in  1846.  A 
small  room  in  a  private  dwelling  served  for  a  gathering 
place  until  1848,  when  a  church,  25  by  35,  was  constructed. 
The  constant  accession  of  numbers  rendered  a  larger 
place  of  worship  necessary  in  1853-4,  under  the  attention 
of  the  Rev.  Father  Moses  Whittey.  The  erection  of  a 
Catholic  church  in  Providence  and  another  in  Dumnore, 
drew  somewhat  from  a  congregation  yet  so  numerically 
strong  in  Scranton,  that  Father  Whittey,  well  known  for 
his  calm  deportment  yet  zealous  devotion  to  the  interests 
of  his  church,  looking  to  the  future  want  and  welfare  of 


LACKAWANNA    VAI.LkT.  235 

his  flock,  began  in  1864  to  build  a  cathedral,  at  an  esti- 
mated cost  of  $100,000.  The  edifice  is  built  in  the  Grecian 
style  of  architecture,  68  by  158  feet,  and  will  seat  2,300 
persons.  Few  individuals  in  the  valley  could  have 
turned  so  powerful  an  influence  to  the  greater  advantage 
of  Scranton  than  has  Father  Whittey  done  in  the  erection 
of  this  edifice. 

The  first  Baptist  church  here  was  built  under  hopeful 
auspices  in  1859  ;  in  1863,  the  Rev.  Isaac  Bevan,  acting 
in  concert  with  those  fostering  the  project,  increased  his 
claim  to  public  gratitude  by  the  erection  of  a  brick  sanc- 
tuary, 50  by  80,  at  a  cost  of  $40,000.  The  church  numbers 
about  200  communicants. 

St.  Luke's  Episcopal  Church  dates  back  only  to  1852. 
Within  the  next  eighteen  months,  a  frame  church  and 
parsonage  were  finished  and  completed  at  a  cost  of  about 
$4,000.  St.  Luke's  is  now  so  comparatively  wealthy  and 
popular  in  Scranton,  that  a  new  stone  church  is  being 
erected  for  a  Parish,  at  a  cost  of  $150,000.  This  ecclesias- 
tical body,  eschewing  politics  and  religious  ultraism,  has, 
under  the  ministerial  administration  of  Rev.  John  Long, 
W.  C.  Robinson,  and  the  Rev.  A.  A.  Marple,  the  inde- 
fatigable, gentlemanly  pastor,  grown  into  public  favor 
in  an  especial  manner  since  its  original  existence  here. 

The  German  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scranton  was  dedi- 
cated in  1859  ;  the  Evangelical  Lutheran  Zion  Church, 
organized  in  1860,  purchased  the  First  Welsh  Baptist 
Church  of  Scranton  in  1863. 

The  Liberal  Christian  Society  have  a  respectable 
organization  with  out  enjoy  ing  a  place  of  worship  of  their 
own. 

The  German  Catholics,  looked  after  by  their  worthy 
pastor,  Rev.  P.  Nagel,  built  them  a  neat  edifice  in  1866, 
at  a  cost  of  $11,000. 

The  above-named  churches,  enumerating  only  those 
embraced  within  the  old  village  proper  of  Scranton,  are 
named  in  the  order  of  their  development. 


236  HISTORY    OF    THE 

The  fact  is  indeed  creditable  to  the  Lacka  wanna  Iron 
and  Coal  Company,  that  a  great  portion  of  the  land  occu- 
pied by  these  respective  places  of  worship,  was  gener- 
ously donated  by  them  for  this  specific  object. 

In  the  Slocum  furnace  of  1800,  nothing  but  charcoal 
was  used  for  smelting  purposes.  Experiments,  attended 
with  failure  and  sometimes  with  derision,  were  made  in 
Pennsylvania  between  1837-9,  toward  the  substitution 
of  anthracite  coal  as  a  melting  menstruum  in  the  manu- 
facture of  iron,  for  the  more  expensive  and  perishable 
charcoal.  The  Iron  Works  upon  the  Lehigh  inaugurated 
the  change  ;  the  Danville  artisans  were  the  next  to  enlarge 
the  province  of  stone  coal.  This  long-delayed  triumph  of 
coal,  wonderful  in  the  grandeur  of  its  results  every  where, 
governed  the  design  of  the  new  furnace  at  Harrison.  It 
was  contemplated  from  the  first  to  use  the  'ball  ore  found 
adjacent  to  one  of  the  veins  of  coal  running  through  the 
whole  coal  region  ;  a  brief  trial  proved  it  too  expensive 
to  mine.  Upon  the  southeastern  slope  of  the  Moosic, 
about  three  miles  from  Harrison,  a  large  body  of  iron  ore 
was  discovered  in  the  spring  of  1841,  which  with  the 
intervening  acres  of  land  was  purchased,  and  a  railroad 
stretched  from  the  mine  to  the  furnace. 

The  erection  of  miners'  houses,  the  increased  cost  of 
the  iron-works  awaiting  blast,  the  unforeseen  yet  una- 
voidable outlay  for  lands  and  railroad  unprovided  for  in 
the  original  estimate,  exhausted  the  capital,  and  left  from 
the  very  outset  an  embarrassing  debt.  Under  such  aus- 
pices, little  calculated  to  encourage  the  enterprise,  came 
Col.  George  W.  Scranton  into  Scranton,  as  a  resident,  in  the 
fall  of  1841.  A  man  of  ardent  faith,  affable  and  persua- 
sive address,  full  of  honor  and  probity,  whom  no  difficul- 
ties could  discourage,  no  honors  cause  him  to  forget  the 
good  of  the  poor  man,  he  was  eminently  fitted  to  aid  Mr. 
Henry  in  the  superintendence  and  experimental  inaugu- 
ration of  the  iron-works. 

The  first  effort  to  start  the  furnace,  owing  to  various 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  237 

causes  incident  to  a  new,  wet,  defective  stack,  appalled 
the  projectors  with  failure.  Wood,  charcoal,  and  even 
salt  and  "brimstone,  employed  as  auxiliaries  to  intensify 
the  heat,  brought  no  fulfillment  of  hopes  or  prospect 
of  victory.  A  second  effort  led  to  the  same  result.  The 
furnace  was  altered.  The  hot-air  ovens  were  multiplied 
and  enlarged,  the  machinery  changed,  and  the  practical 
knowledge  and  services  of  Mr.  John  F.  Davis  secured. 
On  the  18th  of  January,  1842,  the  furnace  was  blown  in, 
amid  mutual  applause  and  congratulation.  About  two 
and  a  quarter  tons  of  pig-iron  per  day  was  made  the  first 
month. 

The  early  trials  and  failures  at  the  furnace,  occupying 
three  months  of  constant  struggle,  awakened  an  interest 
among  the  better  class  of  people  of  the  valley  and  else- 
where, honorable  alike  to  their  intelligence  and  humanity. 
Many,  willing  to  check  any  and  every  advancement  toward 
general  prosperity,  boldly  pronounced  "the  tiling  a  Jer- 
sey humbug  !"  as  they  prayed  and  predicted  it  would  be. 
Even  such  skepticism,  when  the  molten  stream  of  iron 
issued  from  the  furnace  into  bars,  exciting  astonishment 
and  pride,  vanished  into  silence ;  the  people  acquiesced 
in  the  good  feeling  of  the  proprietors,  whose  recompense 
thus  far  had  been  only  hope  deferred. 

In  the  spring  of  1843,  additional  fire-ovens,  with  other 
improvements,  were  added  to  augment  its  capacity,  which 
thus  far  had  yielded  iron  superior  in  quality,  but  deficient 
in  quantity.  Iron,  when  manufactured,  found  no  market  to 
any  extent  short  of  the  distant  sea-board,  reached  only  by 
two  roundabout  routes,  viz. :  the  Delaware  and  Hudson 
Canal,  and  the  North  Branch  and  Tide  Water  Canal,  to 
Havre-de-Grace.  In  either  case,  the  iron  must  be  trans- 
ported upon  heavy  wagons  from  Harrison,  fifteen  miles  to 
Carbondale,  then  the  terminus  of  the  railroad  leading  to 
Honesdale,  or  to  Port  Barnum  on  the  Susquehanna. 

The  first  year's  product  was  shipped  by  the  latter  route 
to  New  York  and  Boston,  at  a  time  when  great  commer- 


238  HISTORY    OF    THE 

cial  embarrassment  pervaded  the  country,  and  threatened 
the  annihilation  of  manufacturing  interests  in  every  sec- 
tion. Since  the  commencement  of  the  forge,  September 
20,  1840,  iron  had  fallen  in  value  over  forty  per  cent.  Its 
demand  and  price  continued  to  decline.  More  than  this, 
Lackawanna  Valley  iron  had  neither  name  nor  character 
in  either  of  these  places  to  carry  itself  into  public  estima- 
tion. Thus  were  men  whose  fortunes  were  pledged  to 
foster  and  sustain  a  great  development,  greeted  in  advance 
by  restrictions  especially  baleful  and  adverse  to  their  suc- 
cess. Meantime,  financial  obstacles  in  Harrison  increased. 
The  credit  system  was  popular  in  the  valley.  It  attenu- 
ated its  dubious  length  as  an  equalizing  medium  among 
the  inhabitants  unwilling  to  accord  it  to  the  company. 

The  darkest  period  in  the  history  of  the  partnership 
was  seen  in  1842-3.  In  a  remunerating  sense,  the  iron 
speculation  had  proved  a  failure,  and  left  the  treasury 
worse  than  empty.  Without  character,  money,  or  credit, 
its  affairs  began  to  look  hopeless.  Their  notes  given  to 
individuals  in  lieu  of  money,  were  daily  offered  to  farmers 
at  forty  per  cent,  discount  in  the  uncurrent  tender  of 
Pennsylvania  currency.  Every  petty  claim  of  indebted- 
ness was  urged  and  pressed  before  the  justices  of  the 
township  with  an  earnestness  really  annoying. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  the  existence  of  the  company 
was  preserved  and  prolonged  by  a  timely  loan  made  them 
by  Joseph  II.  and  E.  C.  Scranton,1  then  of  Augusta, 
Georgia. 

The  persons  once  expecting  but  a  negative  advantage 
themselves,  expressed  regret  at  their  expected  arrest  and 
destruction  ;  others  looked  calmly  and  coldly  on  the 
severe,  unabated  energy  with  which  the  Scrantons,  for- 
getting every  other  consideration,  fought  for  their  bare 
integrity  and  financial  preservation.  Their  failure  at  this 
especial  time  would  have  been  of  double  signilication  and 

1  Killed  by  the  cars,  Dec.  29,  1866,  at  Norwalk,  Ct. 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  239 

injury,  while  the  young,  giant  valley,  far  up  among  the 
hills,  would  have  resumed  the  natural  simplicity  of  its 
former  character. 

As  the  company  faltered  under  the  pressure  of  distrust, 
and  danger  menacing  it  from  every  side,  Col.  Scranton 
never  exhibited  the  elastic  and  buoyant  disposition  ever 
characterizing  the  man,  with  such  admirable  advantage 
as  now.  He  proposed  to  enhance  the  value  of  their  iron 
25  per  cent.,  by  converting  it  into  nails  and  bars,  by  the 
aid  of  a  Rolling  Mill  and  Nail  Factory,  to  be  built  on 
the  brook  below  Nay-aug  Falls.  To  accomplish  this 
great  project,  Selden  T.  Scranton  was  sent  to  New  York 
to  negotiate  for  funds,  if  possible.  This  he  successfully 
did.  He  thus  obtained  $20,000.  The  Rolling  Mill  and 
Nail  Factory  begun  in  1843,  was  completed  in  1844. 
The  erection  of  these  works  with  New  York  capital 
has  indirectly  led  to  an  investment  in  coal  lands  in  the 
Lackawanna  basin,  from  the  same  quarter,  of  some  one 
hundred  and  fifty  millions. 

The  plan  of  the  village  of  Harrison,  laid  out  on  a 
diminutive  scale  in  1841,  by  Captain  Stott,  a  superior 
draughtsman  of  Carbondale,  gave  such  brisk  signs  of  life 
that  the  neighboring  villages  of  Hyde  Park,  Providence, 
and  Dunmore,  feared  that  its  continued  growth  might,  at 
some  future  period,  equal  or  possibly  surpass  their  own ! 

It  yet  had  no  post-office.  Hyde  Park  and  Providence, 
a  mile  or  two  away,  afforded  the  nearest  mail  facilities. 
Dr.  Throop,  then  residing  in  the  latter  village,  a  warm, 
influential  friend  of  the  Scrantons  and  the  improvements 
they  were  striving  to  inaugurate,  attempted  to  get  one 
established  at  this  point.  The  Department  at  Washington, 
influenced  by  the  known  fact  that  a  post-office  had  been 
suspended  here  a  few  years  previous  for  the  want  of 
support,  naturally  gave  the  matter  an  unfavorable  con- 
sideration. 

Nor  had  the  village  a  single  minister,  lawyer,  or  phy- 
sician, within  its  boundaries.  Dr.  Gideon  Underwood, 


240  HISTORY    OF   THE 

now  of  Pittston,  began  professional  life  in  Harrison  in 
1845  ;  he  abandoned  the  place  after  a  few  months,  for  the 
reason  that  it  was  *'  too  small  to  support  a  doctor."  The 
late  Dr.  Robinson  was  his  only  competitor  in  the  township 
of  Providence,  where  now  no  less  than  fifty  physicians 
manage  to  keep  soul  and  body  together,  and  yet  the 
entire  practice  failed  to  sustain  a  gentleman  every  way 
worthy  of  trust.  Dr.  Pier  opened  an  office  in  the  village 
in  1848  ;  Dr.  John  B.  Sherrerd  in  1849.  Drs.  Throop 
and  Sherrerd  started  the  first  drug-store  in  the  town, 
which,  after  the  death  of  Dr.  Sherrerd,  the  next  year, 
passed  into  the  hands  of  L.  S.  &  E.  C.  Fuller,  two  gen- 
tlemen who  have,  through  a  long  series  of  years,  obtained 
a  comparative  competency  by  their  diligence  and  atten- 
tion to  business. 

In  the  spring  of  1844,  Selden  T.  Scranton,  who,  like  all 
the  Scrantons  already  mentioned,  originally  came  from 
East  Guilford,  now  Madison,  New  Haven  County,  Conn., 
removed  from  Oxford  Furnace,  New  Jersey,  settled  in 
Harrison,  exchanging  positions  with  his  brother  George. 
He  was  one  of  the  men  who  shared  in  the  acquisition  of 
the  Roaring  Brook  lands,  four  years  previous  to  this,  and 
who,  by  no  idle  stroke  of  fortune,  succeeded  in  connecting 
his  name  with  its  remotest  future.  Gaining  some  knowl- 
edge of  the  mineral  resources  of  the  valley  of  the 
Lackawanna  from  his  father-in-law,  William  Henry,  he 
readily  joined  in  the  hazard  of  their  successful  devel- 
opment ;  and,  by  the  happy  exercise  of  a  till  en  t  adapted 
admirably  to  win  friendship  or  insure  success,  he  con- 
tributed to  sow  the  seeds,  of  which  the  fruits  were  to 
appear  in  less  than  a  lifetime..  Selden  was  uniform  in  his 
advocacy  of  all  pertaining  to  the  welfare  of  the  valley, 
and  yet  so  honorable  and  consistent  were  his  efforts  in 
this  direction,  that  it  can  be  said  of  him,  as  of  few  men,  he 
never  made  an  enemy  or  lost  a  friend.  The  celebrated 
Oxford  Furnace  is  now  managed  and  principally  owned 
by  him. 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  243 

Under  a  new  direction  of  mechanical  industry,  insti- 
tuted at  the  Lackawanna  Iron  Works  by  its  founders,  the 
final  struggle,  which  was  life  or  death  in  a  commercial 
sense  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  township  of  Providence, 
began  to  give  way  for  actual  remuneration.  The  T  rail 
was  first  manufactured  in  the  United  States  in  1845. 
Railroads,  everywhere  shod  with  the  thin,  flat  rail,  called 
for  the  T  rail,  the  first  of  which  was  made  in  Harrison  for 
the  New  York  and  Erie  Railroad  in  1847.  This  pioneer 
road  through  southern  New  York  was  then  in  operation 
no  farther  than  Goshen.  English  iron,  costing  the  Erie 
Company  $80  per  ton,  had  thus  far  been  laid. 

The  presence  of  every  variety  of  material  cheaply 
attained,  led  the  Scrantons  to  believe  that  as  good,  if  not 
superior,  T  rail  could  be  furnished  by  them,  especially 
upon  the  Delaware  and  Susquehanna  divisions,  at  a 
lower  figure  than  the  English  ironmasters  across  the 
water  had  hitherto  afforded. 

Joseph  H.  Scranton,  a  man  whose  active  mind  for  nearly 
a  quarter  of  a  century  has  been  employed  in  guiding  the 
iron  enterprise  which  this  company  have  developed,  pur- 
chased the  interests  of  Mr.  Grant  in  1846.  Mr.  Platt,  who 
subsequently  became  a  partner,  filled  the  position  vacated 
by  Mr.  Grant,  and  through  the  successive  changes  of 
firms,  the  expansion  and  enlargement  of  business,  he  has 
held  the  same  satisfactory  and  creditable  relation  to  the 
place  he  has  filled  so  long. 

The  year  of  1846  was  auspicious  in  the  history  of  Har- 
rison. Col.  Scranton  returned,  and  aided  by  Joseph  and 
Selden,  negotiated  a  contract  with  the  Erie  Railroad 
Company  for  12,000  tons  of  iron-rail,  to  weigh  58  pounds  to 
the  yard  ;  to  be  made  and  delivered  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Lackawaxen,  in  Pike  County,  during  the  years  of  1847-8. 
This  arrangement  was  mutually  advantageous  to  both 
parties.  It  was  of  vital  significance  to  that  great  road, 
now  stretching  its  fibers  from  the  lake  to  the  sea.  At  the 
opening  of  the  northern  division  of  the  Delaware,  Lacka- 


244  HISTORY    OF    THE 

wanna,  and  Western  Railroad,  Mr.  Loder,  then  President 
of  the  Erie  Company,  stated  in  a  public  speech  that 
nothing  but  the  prompt  fulfillment  of  this  contract  averted 
bankruptcy  to  the  road,  by  enabling  them  within  the 
specified  time  to  open  it  to  Binghamton.  To  the  Scranton 
Company  it  evoked  life-long  results.  The  men  whose 
common  interests  and  joint  sacrifices  and  struggles  had 
bound  them  together  in  the  unity  of  brotherhood,  felt  the 
invigorating  and  fervid  influence  of  this  great  sale  of  iron, 
which  gave  to  the  valley  a  prospect  and  prominence  it 
never  had  enjoyed  before. 

Mills  and  machinery  of  a  corresponding  character,  with 
the  wherewithal  to  erect  them,  were  thus  necessitated  by 
compliance  of  the  contract. 

Several  gentlemen,  wealthy  and  warm  friends  of  the 
Erie  road,  promptly  came  forward,  and  on  the  simple 
obligations  of  the  Scrantons  alone,  with  no  security,  but 
faith  in  their  integrity,  loaned  them  $100,000  to  construct 
the  requisite  iron-works.  Extraordinary  activity  was 
now  displayed  in  Harrison,  in  every  department  of  busi- 
ness, the  active  management  of  which  passed  into  the 
hands  of  Joseph  H.  Scranton,  who  came  here  to  reside  in 
1847. 

Up  until  now  the  means  of  transportation  to  market 
of  the  now  largely  increased  annual  product  of  iron, 
remained  as  difficult  as  at  the  commencement,  with  the 
exception  of  the  extension  of  the  Delaware  and  Hudson 
Canal  Company's  railroad  from  Carbondale  to  Archbald, 
which  reduced  the  hauling  by  teams  to  nine  miles  ;  the 
iron  ore  was  carted  three  miles  and  a  half  from  the  mines  ; 
the  limestone  and  extra  pig-iron  needed  by  the  mill,  pur- 
chased at  Danville,  drawn  from  the  canal  at  Pittston,  and 
the  railroad  iron,  now  the  principal  product  of  the  works, 
was  drawn  to  Archbald  upon  heavy  wagons,  requiring 
the  use  of  over  four  hundred  horses  and  mules.  Even 
this  large  force,  gathered  from  the  farmers  of  Blakeley, 
Providence,  and  Lackawanna,  sometimes  at  the  expense 


LACK  A  WANNA    VALLEY.  247 

of  agricultural  interests,  was  able  to  move  the  first  rail 
iron  only  with  provoking  tardiness. 

Two  large  blast-furnaces  were  now  in  the  course  of  con- 
struction, as  well  as  a  railroad  to  the  ore  mines  on  the 
mountain.  This  road  was  so  graded  that  the  empty  cars 
could  be  drawn  to  the  mines  by  mules,  and  when  loaded 
with  ore,  return  to  the  furnace  by  gravity  power  alone, 
over  five  miles  and  a  half  of  this  circuitous  road. 

On  the  south  side  of  Roaring  Brook,  some  three  hun- 
dred houses  had  been  built  for  the  workmen ;  upon  the 
the  other,  now  the  business  part  of  Scranton,  but  a  single 
dwelling,  aside  from  the  few  owned  and  occupied  by  the 
company,  stood.  This  had  been  erected  by  Dr.  Throop 
for  his  brother.  With  the  constant  influx  of  new-comers, 
the  doctor,  who  was  recognized  pre-eminently  throughout 
the  country  as  the  doctor,  removed  from  Providence  to 
Harrison  in  1847.  On  the  old  mill  road  leading  from  Slo- 
cum  Hollow  to  &azormlte,  amidst  the  tranquil  woodlands, 
he  built  his  modest  cottage.  He  lived  here  many  years, 
with  his  family,  with  no  house  in  sight  of  his  own,  sur- 
rounded by  the  low  murmuring  pines,  where,  after  the  pro- 
fessional drives  of  the  da}^  he  enjoyed  the  cheerful  fireside 
and  smoked  his  pipe  in  quiet,  with  no  sound  to  disturb 
him,  save  the  grave  bo-loonk-blonJc  of  the  denizens  of  the 
adjacent  swamp,  tuning  up  their  minstrelsy  at  each  suc- 
cessive nightfall.  The  cottage,  remodified  and  absorbed 
into  business  quarters,  is  yet  seen  in  sound  condition,  near 
the  Presbyterian  church. 

The  Lackawanna  Iron  Company,  organized  under  the 
general  partnership  law,  consisted  of  George  W.  Scran- 
ton,  Selden  T.  Scranton,  Joseph  H.  Scranton,  and  J.  C. 
Platt  as  the  general  partners,  and  several  New  York  gen- 
tlemen as  special  ones.  Edward  G.  Lynde  and  Edward 
P.  Kingsbury,  two  gentlemen  eminently  qualified  for  any 
station,  fill  the  respective  positions  of  secretary  and  assist- 
ant treasurer. 

To  carry  through  the  programme  of  manufacturing  and 


248  HISTORY   OF   THE 

delivering  to  the  New  York  and  Erie  Railroad  Company, 
this  quantity  of  iron,  with  the  limited  capital  at  command, 
required  extraordinary  exertion  and  energy.  Extra  work, 
additional  machinery,  and  various  expensive  materials, 
augmented  the  necessity  of  more  money  and  labor.  Large 
iron  contrivances  Avhieh  were  essential  to  the  works  were 
drawn,  by  the  jaded  horse  or  stubborn  mule,  sixty  or  sev- 
enty miles  over  the  rough,  hilly  roads  for  which  upper 
Pennsylvania  was  formerly  distinguished.  Teams  consist- 
ing of  eight  mules  were  used  for  this  service  with  such  vex- 
atious experience,  that  willing  and  reliable  drivers  were 
rarely  found  or  retained.  When  such  were  apparently  se- 
cured, the  company  found  it  necessary  to  contract  with  the 
keepers  of  the  small  taverns  along  the  road  from  Strouds- 
burg  to  the  Hollow,  to  furnish  meals  for  their  drivers  and 
feed  for  their  teamsx  and  forward  bills  each  month  to  the 
office  for  payment.  It  was  especially  provided  that  no 
liquor  should,  under  any  condition  or  circumstance,  be 
furnished  the  drivers.  Yet  bills  properly  attested  for 
"sixteen  glasses  of  leming  ayde  (lemonade),  at  six- 
pence a  glass,  and  one  pint  of  whisky,"  came  from 
places  where  a  lemon  had  never  been  heard  of  before  or 
since. 

The  business  of  the  company,  so  comprehensive  in  its 
character,  so  beneficial  in  its  influence,  made  many  a  val- 
ley fireside  exult  with  hopes  and  smiles.  To  witness  a 
town  spring  from  a  pasture  lot  with  such  rapidity  into  a 
maze  of  founderies,  furnaces,  manufacturing  works,  and 
dwellings  full  of  bright  expectations,  caused  astonishment 
and  pride  among  the  inhabitants,  unused  to  such  rapid 
advancement.  The  rise  in  real  estate  along  the  Lacka- 
wanna  Valley,  as  well  as  Wyoming,  since  the  organiza- 
tion of  this  company,  was  at  least  one  hundred  per 
cent.,  while  the  relations  of  the  Scranton's  with  the  pub- 
lic were  harmonious,  and  characterized  throughout  by 
general  good  feeling.  It  is  true,  there  were  then  as  there 
are  yet,  and  ever  will  be,  a  class  of  croakers  who  gathered 


LACKAWANNA    VALLET.  251 

in  bar-room  groups  and  gravely  predicted  that  "the 
Scrantons  must  fail." 

On  the  western  side  of  the  Lackawanna  a  line  of  four- 
horse  stages  ran  up  from  Wilkes  Barre  to  Carbondale, 
connecting  at  each  place  with  a  similar  line  ma  Milford 
and  Morristown  to  New  York,  and  ma  Easton  to  Phila- 
delphia, and  furnished  the  only  mode  of  conveyance  to  or 
from  the  Lackawanna,  and  brought  New  York  daily 
papers  to  Providence  and  Hyde  Park  in  the  forenoon  of 
the  tJiird  day  after  their  publication. 

The  mills  were  completed  ;  as  they  molded  the  hills  into 
iron  fiber  awaiting  no  longer  a  market,  the  Lackawanna 
Iron  Works  stepped  into  the  front  ranks  and  established 
their  character  beyond  cavil  or  peradventure.  The  first 
fifteen  hundred  tons  of  railroad  iron  was  delivered  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Lackawaxen.  Here  it  was  taken  by  canal 
to  Port  Jervis,  and  laid  on  the  road  between  that  place 
and  Otisville.  After  that  portion  of  the  Erie  road  was 
opened  to  the  public,  the  company,  delayed  by  injunc- 
tions urged  on  by  the  cupidity  of  Philadelphians  and  the 
New  York  Central  interests,  in  crossing  the  river  into  Penn- 
sylvania at  the  Glass  House  rocks,  finding  their  utter 
inability  to  open  the  road  to  Binghamton  by  the  time 
specified  without  the  delivery  of  the  balance  of  the  iron 
at  different  points  along  the  route  by  the  Scranton  Com- 
pany, arranged  such  terms  of  delivery,  in  pursuance  of 
which  the  Scranton  Company  carted  by  teams  some  seven 
thousand  tons  of  rail,  which  they  delivered  at  Narrows- 
burgh,  Cochecton,  Equinunk,  Stockport,  Summit,  and 
Lanesboro,  an  average  distance  of  about  fifty  miles,  thus 
enabling  the  company  to  lay  the  track  almost  simultane- 
ously at  all  points  along  the  Delaware  division  as  fast 
as  the  grading  was  ready,  and  open  the  road  for  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty  miles  four  days  ahead  of  the  appointed 
time.  The  difficulty  of  carting  so  large  an  amount  of  iron 
within  so  brief  a  period,  can  be  inferred  only  by  those 


nisror.v  OF  THK 

familiar  with  tin-  ruggcdness  of  the  mountain  roads  int'T- 
vening. 

A  post-office,  named  Scrantonia^  was  established  in 
Harrison  in  1848,  and  John  AY.  Moore  appointed  post- 
master. Tiie  name  of  Harrison  was  dropped  for  that  of 
Scrantonia.  The  sani"  year  the  old  names  of  Capotw 
and  Slocum  Hollow  were  disowned  and  forgotten  by  new- 
comers :  the  accidental  and  transient  ones,  Lackawanna 
Iron  AYorks,  Harrison,  Serantonia,  were  folded  up  and 
laid  away  forever  for  the  briefer  name  of  Scranton. 

The  rapid  expansion  and  concentration  of  business  at 
this  point,  as  well  as  the  absence  of  all  necessary  commu- 
nications with  the  sea-board  and  the  lakes,  rendered  an 
outlet  east  or  west  most  apparent  and  desirable.  The 
project  of  connecting  the  valley  by  railroad  with  the  Xew 
York  and  Erie  road,  in  a  northerly  direction,  was  fre- 
quently discussed  by  the  general  partners  :  in  fact,  it  was 
the  sanguine  expectations  of  a  line  of  public  improvement 
being  extended  both  north  and  south  at  no  distant  day, 
that  went  far  toward  deciding  the  original  proprietors  in 
locating  here. 

AYith  a  view  of  bringing  the  subject  of  railroad  facili- 
ties, and  connections  with  the  valley  generally,  before  the 
minds  of  capitalists  in  a  manner  both  advantageous  and 
effective,  Col.  George  ^Y.  Scranton  was  detailed  from  the 
active  engagement  of  the  affairs  of  the  Iron  Company  in 
the  summer  of  1848. 

A'nluab'e  coal  lands  had  been  secured  as  a  reliable 
basis  of  such  an  enterprise;  large  delegations  of  New 
York  and  New  England  gentlemen  were  persuaded  from 
time  to  time  to  visit  the  valley  and  examine  the  vast  min- 
eral resources  apparent  along  its  border,  and  witness  the 
dark  (Toppings  of  coal,  the  fertile  farms  and  luxurious 
intervale,  the.  abundant  water-power  for  mills  or  manufac- 
turing purposes,  the  splendid  sites  and  the  fine  timber; 
all  of  which,  the  moment  a  railroad  outlet  appeared, 
would  be  trebled  in  value.  By  many,  the  valley  was 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  25?, 

considered  too  wild  and  remote,  or  too  difficult  of  access, 
even  for  an  exploring  tour.  Such  never  left  the  parental 
roof,  and  it  was  left  for  "bolder  hearts  and  stouter  arms  to 
plant  and  reap  the  harvest.  An  extra  stage-coach,  with 
its  five  miles  an  hour  speed,  now  and  then  brought  into 
the  valley  delegation  after  delegation  from  the  East,  which 
were  hailed  with  friendly  solicitude  by  the  inhabitants. 
Often  and  always  was  the  inquiry  heard  of  that  firm 
friend  of  the  public  interest,  Sam  Tripp,  "When  the 
Yorkers  were  coming  ?"  All  eyes,  for  a  time,  were 
directed  toward  the  local  movements  of  the  Yorkers, 
and  the  hope  of  every  honest  citizen  then  as  well  as 
now  was,  that  long  life  and  prosperity  would  be  the  for- 
tune of  all  who  came. 

Until  1847  no  car  had  rolled  nor  had  a  single  rail 
reached  the  remote  Lackawanna,  with  the  exception  of 
those  upon  the  Delaware  and  Hudson  Canal  Company's 
railroad  from  Carbonclale  to  Honesdale.  This  road  was 
a  gravity  one,  worked  by  stationary  steam-engines  and 
horse-power,  over  the  Moosic  Mountain,  and  was  built  in 
1826-8. 

Drinker's  route  for  a  railroad  from  Pittston  to  Delaware 
Water  Gap,  surveyed  in  1824,  to  develop  which  Scranton 
was  originally  planned,  and  ultimately  reversed  in  rela- 
tion and  purpose,  had  yet  no  living  functions  given  its 
indefinite  existence.  The  line  was  run  with  a  view  of  in- 
clined planes  operated  by  water,  and  perhaps  a  canal  over 
the  more  level  portion  of  the  way. 

Wurts  Brothers,  Meredith,  and  Drinker  blazed  the  trees 
along  the  forest  for  their  gravity  roads  through  many  a 
lonely  nook  shaded  by  woods  ;  but  the  honor  of  conceiv- 
ing and  completing  a  locomotive  road  from  Great  Bend  to 
the  Delaware  River,  belongs  to  the  late  Col.  George  W. 
Scranton — the  firm,  fast  friend  of  every  industrial  interest 
of  the  valley.  Mountainous  as  were  the  general  features 
of  the  intermediate  country,  formidable  as  appeared  the 
idea  of  grading  ranges  offering  stubborn  resistance  to  such 


254  HISTORY    OF    TUB 

invasions  of  the  engineer,  be  advanced  and  urged  forward 
his  scheme  until  he  was  able  to  see  and  share  its  substan- 
tial achievements  and  advantages.  Under  the  immediate 
direction  of  Col.  Scranton,  a  preliminary  survey  was  made 
of  the  proposed  route,  which  was  found  to  be  quite  as 
feasible  as  his  own  personal  observations  had  led  him  to 
expect,  and,  as  the  idle  charter  of  Leggett's  Gap  Railroad 
would  answer  every  practical  purpose,  after  slight  modi- 
fications, it  was  purchased. 

The  public  mind,  understanding  only  the  rough  topog- 
raphy of  the  country,  without  a  single  village  of  a  thou- 
sand inhabitants,  was  instructed  into  the  benefits  to  How 
from  the  construction  of  this  rail  highway  to  the  upper 
border  of  the  State.  The  subscription  books  were  opened 
at  Kresler's  hotel,  in  Scranton,  in  1847,  by  the  commission- 
ers, and  the  whole  capital  stock  promptly  subscribed,  and 
ten  per  cent,  paid  in.  While  these  flattering  movements 
argued  well  for  the  common  welfare  of  the  valley,  and 
country  adjacent,  men  of  means  were  so  shy  of  the  enter- 
prise, that  it  was  the  work  of  two  long  years  of  ceaseless 
labor  amidst  every  possible  discouragement,  before  any 
real  capital  could  be  calculated  upon.  The  road  was 
commenced  in  1850,  and  pushed  forward  in  the  same 
spirit  of  earnest  enthusiasm  with  which  it  was  conceived. 
To  overcome  the  objection  that  it  would  not  pay  as  an 
investment,  and  reach  and  make  a  more  northern  market 
(for  the  first  loads  of  coal  taken  hence,  were  given  away 
in  order  to  introduce  the  black  stuff  into  general  use), 
the  Ithaca  and  Owego  Railroad,  one  of  the  oldest  roads 
in  the  country,  was  purchased  by  the  Iron  Company 
in  1849.  This,  like  all  railroads  in  the  United  States  at 
this  time,  was  laid  with  the  flat  or  strap  mil — a  rail  pos- 
sessing neither  strength  nor  safety,  as  one  end  of  it  some- 
times becoming  bent  would  dart  up  with  lightning-like 
rapidity  into  the  passing  train,  marking  its  progress  with 
appalling  slaughter. 

A  new  company  being  now  organized,  called  the  Cayuga 


LACKA.WANNA    VALLEY.  255 

and  Susquehanna  Railroad  Company,  for  the  purpose  of 
building  this  road,  Colonel  Scranton  was  chosen  Presi- 
dent, who  at  once  repaired  to  Ithaca  and  discharged  the 
duties  of  the  position  with  acknowledged  prudence  and 
success. 

To  carry  out  the  original  plan  contemplated  by  the 
colonel,  of  connecting  the  iron-works  with  New  York 
City  by  a  locomotive  road,  a  survey  was  made  eastward 
in  1851-2,  and  the  next  year  the  present  line,  running 
parallel  and  sometimes  embracing  the  Drinker  route, 
adopted. 

Thus  far  Scranton  had  but  a  single  hotel.  Mr.  Kresler, 
popular  as  a  landlord,  could  not  in  his  abridged  quarters 
meet  the  demands  of  the  throng  turning  into  the  village. 
A  large  brick  hotel,  such  as  only  courageous  men  could 
have  planned  in  such  a  place,  was  erected  in  1852,  by  the 
Iron  Company,  to  which  was  applied  the  strange  mis- 
nomer of  Wyoming  House.  Mr.  J.  C.  Burgess  became 
the  purchaser,  and  is  the  present  owner.  The  next  public 
house  emerging  from  the  forest,  from  which  it  derived  its 
name — Forest  House — was  fitted  up  and  kept  by  Joseph 
Godfrey,  Esq.  The  St.  Charles,  Kock's,  and  the  Lacka- 
wanna  Valley  House,  appropriate  in  name,  and  a  dozen 
others  less  familiar  to  the  wayfarer,  have  anticipated  the 
demand  of  the  moving  world  until,  to-day,  Scranton  can 
boast  of  the  beauty,  comfort,  and  healthfulness  of  its 
hotels,  rarely  equaled,  and  surpassed  nowhere  within  the 
State. 

The  Iron  Company  reorganized  in  1853,  under  a  special 
charter,  with  a  capital  of  8800,000,  and  Selden  T.  Scranton, 
now  of  Oxford  Furnace,  N.  J.,  elected  President,  and 
Joseph  H.  Scranton,  the  present  Manager  and  President, 
Superintendent. 

After  the  Lackawanna  and  Western  Railroad  was  con- 
solidated with  the  Delaware  and  Cobb's  Gap  charter, 
under  the  name  of  the  "Delaware,  Lackawanna,  an  I 
Western  Railroad  Company,"  work  was  commenced 


2.")G  HISTORY    <)F    THK 

vigorously  on  the  southern  division  of  this  road.  On  the 
Cist  of  January,  1  •>/(>.  the  first  locomotive  and  train  oT 
cars  parsed  over  the  Delaware. 

Rapid  as  lias  been  the  sympathetic  growth  of  half  a 
dozen  villages  from  Pittston  to  Carbondale.  theirs  has  been 
a  snail's  pace  compared  to  the  sturdier  growth  of  Seranton. 
In  July,  1840  y/Vr  small  brown  tenements  composed  the 
town  of  tflocutit  Hollow,  where  now  the  young  city  of 
Seranton,  perpetuating  the  name  of  its  founders  as  long  as 
the  Lacka wanna  shall  flow  by  the;  dwellings  of  civilized 
man.  enumerates  a  population,  constantly  increasing,  of 
iive-and-forty  thousand. 

The  stranger  who  visits  Seranton  may  not  find  as  much 
wildness  and  sublimity  around  it  as  when,  from  the 
Pocono  Range,  his  eye  lirst  catches  a  glimpse  of  the  truly 
bold  outlines  of  the  Delaware  Water  (rap,  he  will,  never- 
theless, as  he  walks  along  the  walls  of  Roaring  Brook,  and 
gazes  0:1  the  massive  piles  of  furnace  stacks,  pouring  out, 
day  after  day,  ponds  of  rude  or  finished  iron,  from  the 
ponderous  bar  to  the  delicate  bolt,  and  S"es  the  smooth, 
yet  resistless  motion  of  the  largest  stationary  engine  on  the; 
American  Continent,  feel  proud  and  pleased  with  the 
fsight>  of  industry  and  thrift  everywhere  around  him. 

To  get  and  appreciate  a  bird's-eye  view  of  the  town  and 
vaihy.  let  the  tourist  ascend  the  high  bluff  near  the  Bap- 
tist. Church  in  Hyde  Park,  overlooking  the  city,  where 
the  charming  panorama  that  unrolls  itself  before  him,  will 
compensate  in  tin-  high"st  degree  for  the  trouble  of  the 
visit.  He  will  tlifii  look  down  into  a  region  interesting 
for  irs  scenery,  its  strata  of  coal,  its  beds  of  iron  ore,  and 
its  Indian  history.  The  first  impression  is  one  favorable 
toward  this  portion  of  the  valley,  as  there  appears  on 
every  sid"  evidence  of  animation  and  thrift. 

Yonder  the  iioixy  iraf,  r  ,  I'oaring  Brook)  takes  a  while 
1  "ip  from  one  of  the  loveliest  and  loneliest  nooks  carved 
iron:  the  mountain,  before  it  splashes  on  the  busy  wheel 
of  I!KI  manufacturer,  and  after  being  used  three  or  four 


LACK  A  WANNA    VALLEY.  257 

times  in  its  passage  through  the  city,  mingles  with  the 
waters  of  the  Lackawanna  below.  The  huge,  round, 
slate-roofed  locomotive  depot,  filled  with  engines,  at  first 
strikes  the  eye,  and  reminds  him  of  the  Roman  Coliseum  ; 
while  the  landscape,  sprinkled  with  brown-colored  depots, 
car-shops,  and  Vulcan-shops  on  every  side ;  the  chaste, 
imposing  churches,  the  long  white  line  of  public  and 
private  architecture  contrasting  finely  with  the  deep  green 
of  the  surrounding  trees,  tastily  left  for  shade ;  the 
trains  of  coal  cars,  serpentine  and  dark,  emerging  from 
the  "  Diamond  Mines  ;"  or  skimming  along  the  iron  veins, 
down  a  grade  of  seventy  feet  to  the  mile,  from  the  pro- 
ductive coal  works  at  the  "Notch,"  some  two  miles 
distant,  on  their  passage  to  New  York  ;  the  locomotives 
of  the  Lehigh  and  Susquehanna,  the  Lackawanna  and 
Bloomsburg,  of  the  Delaware,  Lackawanna,  and  Western, 
of  the  Delaware  and  Hudson  Railroads,  rushing  into 
Scranton  like  some  fleet  devils,  carrying  on  their  back 
the  whole  moving  world  whether  they  will  or  not ;  the 
villages  of  Hyde  Park,  Providence,  Dunmore,  and  Green 
Ride,  arrayed  in  thrifty  garb,  far  up  and  down  the  valley  ; 
the  Lee-har-hanna,  with  its  modest  throat  and  richer 
shade  drawn  like  a  belt  of  silver  along  the  picture  ;  the 
neat  farm-houses,  here  and  there  nestling  in  some  lovely 
meadow,  or  half  hid  among  the  blossoms  of  orchards, 
with  the  background  of  the  unshorn  mountain,  swelling 
upward  from  Wyoming  or  the  Lackawanna  region,  all 
make  up  a  sight  as  beautiful  as  the  Jewish  ruler  of  old 
once  witnessed  from  old  Mount  Nebo.  Nor  is  this  all. 
As  he  looks  into  the  bosom  of  "Capouse  Meadow,"  his 
eye  wanders  over  coal  lands  which,  fifteen  years  before 
the  completion  of  a  railroad  outlet  north  from  the  valley, 
could  have  been  purchased  for  fifteen  dollars  per  acre, 
and  which  now  are  worth  $800  and  $1,000  ;  and  building- 
lots,  which  then  no  respectable  man  was  willing  to  accept 
as  a  gratuity,  now  readily  bring  from  one  to  five  thousand 
dollars  each. 

17 


258  HISTORY  or  THE 

The  growth  of  Scranton  has  been  marked  by  uniform 
decades. 

In  1826,  the  Drinker  Railroad  wrought  consternation 
among  the  pines  of  this  secluded  glen  ;  in  183C  the  same 
measure,  combined  with  the  North  Branch  Canal  and  new 
county  schemes,  again  awakened  hopes  partially  fulfilled. 
In  1846,  sales  of  iron  made  by  the  Scranton  Company, 
enabled  them  to  defy  threatened  bankruptcy ;  in  1856, 
the  first  locomotive  engine  rolled  from  Scranton,  just 
formed  into  a  borough,  to  the  Delaware  River;  in  1866, 
incorporated  into  a  city  ;  and  in  1876,  all  the  townships  in 
northern  and  central  Luzerne  will  probably  take  their 
places  in  the  new  county  of  Lacka wanna,  with  the  county 
seat  at  Scranton.  In  1866,  Scranton,  Hyde  Park,  and 
Providence,  were  fashioned  by  the  legislature  of  Penn- 
sylvania into  a  city  composed  of  twelve  wards,  wTith  all 
the  municipal  rights  and  regulations  necessary  for  its  exist- 
ence. E.  S.  M.  Hill,  Esq.,  was  elected  mayor. 

The  newspaper  interests  of  Scranton,  now  so  prominent 
a  feature,  had  no  place  or  foothold  until  fifteen  years 
ago. 

During  he  year  1845,  a  newspaper  called  the  County 
Mirror  was  started  in  Providence  (now  the  1st  and  2d 
Wards,  Scranton),  by  the  late  Franklin  B.  Woodward. 
Harrison  at  this  time  had  made  so  humble  pretensions 
that  but  a  single  advertisement  from  the  village  found  its 
way  into  this  lively  paper.  In  1852,  the  Lackawanna 
Herald,  a  paper  of  more  partisan  bitterness  than  real 
ability,  was  issued  in  Scranton  by  Charles  E.  Lathrop. 
Three  years  later  the  Spirit  of  the  Valley  was  published 
by  Thomas  J.  Alleger  and  ,T.  B.  Adams  for  one  year, 
when  the  two  were  consolidated  under  the  name  of  the 
Herald  of  the  Union,  purchased  and  edited  by  the  late 
Ezra  B.  Chase, — a  gentleman  of  superior  literary  attain- 
?nents.  Declining  health  induced  him  soon  after  to  sell 
out  to  Dr.  A.  Davis  and  J.  B.  Adams.  In  the  spring  of 
1859,  Dr.  Davis  purchased  the  interest  of  Mr.  Adams, 


LACKAWANNA  VALLKY.  259 

transferring  it  to  Dr.  Silas  M.  Wheeler,  and  the  paper 
was  managed  by  these  medical  gentlemen  with  a  degree 
of  originality  and  spiciness  rarely  seen  in  a  country 
newspaper.  Dr.  Davis  at  that  time  moved  into  Scranton, 
building  the  first  house  erected  on  Franklin  Avenue,  and 
now  occupied  by  Dr.  G.  W.  Masser.  This  paper  finally 
subsided  into  the  Scranton  Register,  owned  and  edited  by 
Mayor  E.  S.  M.  Hill,  until  the  summer  of  1868. 

Theodore  Smith  established  the  Scranton  Republican 
in  1856,  conducting  it  in  a  highly  creditable  manner  for 
two  years,  when  F.  A.  McCartney  became  the  proprietor. 
After  being  owned  by  Thos.  J.  Alleger,  and  conducted 
fairly  and  honorably,  it  passed  into  the  hands  of  F.  A. 
Crandall,  then  again  into  those  of  F.  A.  Crandall  &  Co., 
the  present  energetic  and  spirited  owners.  The  Scranton 
City  Journal  came  forth  from  the  hands  of  Messrs.  Bene- 
dicts in  1867,  and  from  the  acknowledged  industry  and 
qualifications  of  these  gentlemen,  the  new  paper  can  hardly 
fail  to  thrive. 

The  Scranton  Wochenblatt,  a  German  paper,  was 
started,  with  a  large  circulation,  January  1865,  by  E.  A. 
Ludwig.  It  is  now  edited  and  published  by  F.  Wagner, 
and  presents  a  neat  appearance.  The  Democrat — a  bold, 
original,  ultra- democratic  paper — edited  by  J.  B.  Adams, 
has  already  secured  the  favorable  consideration  and  good 
opinion  of  the  people  of  the  country. 

The  above  named  are  and  were  all  weekly  publications. 

One  or  two  dailies  and  tri- weeklies  have  been  born  and 
buried  within  that  period  ;  some  of  them,  especially  the 
Morning  Herald,  a  daily  published  in  1866  Tiy  J.  B. 
Adams,  evidenced  considerable  merit.  None  of  them 
however,  exhibited  the  substantial  prosperity  shoAvn  by 
the  Scranton  Daily  Register,  edited  by  E.  S.  M.  Hill, 
Esq.,  and  managed  in  its  local  department  by  J.  B.  Adams 
with  a  bluntness  and  severity  of  thought,  .which,  however 
creditable  it  might  have  been  to  his  abilities  as  a  writer, 
offended  the  erring  rather  than  corrected  the  errors  of  the 


260  HISTORY    OF    THE 

day.  Messrs.  Carl  and  Burtch,  purchased  the  paper  in 
1808,  converted  it  into  an  evening  issue,  and  by  its  tele- 
graphic features  and  the  vigor  of  its  young  editors,  with- 
out abating  any  of  its  democratic  tendencies,  it  lias  already 
gained  a  place  in  the  public  heart. 

In  spite  of  the  failures  in  every  inland  town  and  city 
in  Pennsylvania  to  sustain  a  daily  paper,  with  full  tele- 
graphic news,  Messrs.  Scranton  and  Crandall  essayed  forth 
the  Scranton  Daily  Republican  in  November,  1867,  as 
an  experimental  measure. 

Its  prosperity  and  success,  at  first  jeopardized  by  a 
disastrous  fire,  is  now  fully  assured  in  public  opinion, 
and  all  concede  to  these  gentlemen  the  credit  of  first  offer- 
ing to  the  people  a  daily  country  paper,  with  telegraphic 
news  simultaneously  enjoyed  by  the  New  York  Asso- 
ciated Press.  Its  local  department,  managed  by  Mr. 
Chase,  and  its  general  editorials,  somewhat  ultra  and 
positive  in  their  character,  bear  evidence  of  vigorous 
thought. 

Scranton  abounds  in  industrial  enterprises,  which  its 
remarkable  growth  have  prompted  and  fostered. 

FINCH  &  Co.'s  SCRANTON  CITY  FOUNDERY  AND  MACHINE 
WORKS,  situated  on  the  Hyde  Park  side  of  the  Lacka- 
wanna,  was  established,  in  1850,  by  Mr.  A.  P.  Finch. 
This  establishment,  representing  high  engineering  attain- 
ment, is  largely  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  portable 
and  stationary  engines,  mining  machinery,  circular  saw- 
mills, turbine  water-wheels,  iron  fronts,  &c.,  &c. 

MACLAREN'S  BRASS  FOUNDERY,  deriving  its  name  from 
its  founder  and  owner,  John  Maclaren,  is  located  in 
Scranton,  near  the  depot  of  the  Lehigh  and  Susquehanna 
Railroad.  Its  establishment  in  1866,  to  supply  the  de- 
mands of  a  wide  section  hitherto  seeking  New  York  or 
Philadelphia  for  the  infinite  variety  of  brass  work  needed 
in  the  interest  of  commerce,  gave  proof  of  sound  judg- 
ment and  a  correct  appreciation  of  the  increasing  wants 
of  the  Valley  of  the  Lacka wanna.  This  is  one  of  the 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY. 


201 


262  IIISTOKY    OF    THE 

most  extensive  brass  founderies  in  the  State,  and  while  its 
success  adds  to  the  wealth  and  vigor  of  Scranton,  the 
public  are  not  indifferent  to  its  general  welfare. 

THE  CAPOUSE  WORKS  of  Pulaski  Carter,  of  Providence, 
known  far  and  wide  by  the  superior  character  of  the 
edge  tools  issuing  from  them,  as  well  as  by  the  self-made 
man  instituting  on  the  low  bank  of  the  Lackawanna  this 
pioneer  mechanical  enterprise;  THE  SASH  AND  BLIND 
MANUFACTORY  of  Messrs.  Hand  &  Costen,  of  Providence ; 
the  PROVIDENCE  STOVE  MANUFACTORY  of  Henry  O.  Silk- 
man  ;  the  SCRANTON  STOVE  AND  MANUFACTURING  COM- 
PANY, of  Scranton,  and  the  various  individual  and  asso- 
ciated operations  and  improvements  within  the  city  limits, 
establishes  the  reputation  of  Scranton  as  a  manufacturing 
rather  than  a  mining  city. 

The  sketch  of  the  history  of  Scranton  can  hardly  be 
appropriately  closed  without  a  glance  at  the  great  iron 
works  now  in  blast  here,  capable  of  smelting  about  sev- 
enty thousand  tons  of  ore  a  year.  The  sizes  of  these  blast 
furnaces  may  be  inferred  from  the  diameter  of  the  boshes, 
which  are  respectively  18,  18,  19,  and  20  feet,  with  a 
height  of  fifty  feet.  Into  these  furnaces  air  is  forced  by 
four  lever-beam  engines  of  vast  power.  The  steam  cylin- 
ders are  fifty-four  inches  in  diameter.  The  blowing  cyl- 
inders are  110  inches  in  diameter,  with  ten  feet  stroke. 
The  wind  is  forced  by  this  apparatus  into  the  furnaces, 
under  an  average  pressure  of  eight  pounds  to  the  square 
inch.  The  huge  fly-wheels  which  regulate  the  move- 
ments of  this  rnormous  apparatus  weigh  forty  thousand 
pounds.  In  order  to  be  prepared  for  any  possible  exi- 
gency, and  have  increased  blowing  power,  the  Iron  Com- 
pany have  built  appropriate  apartments,  and  set  up  still 
another  pair  of  engines  upon  the  very  ground  where  for- 
merly stood,  under  one  roof,  the  first  office,  store,  and 
dwelling  of  Messrs.  Scranton  and  Grant,  in  Harrison,  sub- 
sequently known  as  "Kresler's  Hotel." 

This  pair  of  engines  have  cylinders  59  inches  in  diame- 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  263 

ter,  and  blowing  cylinders  90  inches.  Each  engine  has 
two  fly-wheels,  28  feet  in  diameter,  weighing  seventy -five 
thousand  pounds.  By  this  power  they  are  able  to  force 
air  into  the  furnaces  under  a  pressure  of  eight  or  nine 
pounds  to  the  square  inch,  a  great  advantage,  as  it  is 
found  by  experiments  that  in  order  for  a  furnace  to  yield 
the  greatest  product,  it  must  not  only  have  a  certain 
amount  of  air,  but  that  the  air,  to  be  most  advantageous, 
must  be  introduced  under  heavy  pressure,  and  at  many 
places  simultaneously,  when  it  is  more  equally  diffused 
through  the  stack.  The  aggregate  productive  capacity  of 
the  Scranton  furnaces  is  about  sixty  thousand  tons  per 
annum. 

A  walk  of  five  minutes  brings  one  to  the  rolling-mills, 
which  also  stand  on  the  north  side  of  the  Roaring  Brook. 
Midway  between  the  furnace  and  the  mills,  down  the  bank 
of  the  brook  to  the  right,  is  seen  a  railroad  track  leading 
into  a  mine  directly  under  our  feet,  into  which  a  few 
blackened  coal  cars,  drawn  by  mules,  disappear  in  mid- 
night. This  vein  of  coal,  at  this  point,  which  is  used  in 
all  the  iron  works  now,  is  the  very  one  first  seen  by  the 
exploring  party,  in  1840,  led  by  Mr.  Henry,  and  which,  in 
connection  with  the  adjacent  iron  deposits,  decided  the 
Scrantons  and  Mr.  Grant  to  purchase  this  property  for 
sixteen  dollars  an  acre.  Entering  the  rolling-mill,  one  is 
surprised  to  see  the  magnitude  and  the  precision  of  the 
whole  arrangement.  The  principal  product  of  the  mills 
is  T  railroad  bars,  of  which  about  40,000  tons  a  year  are 
finished.  A  great  quantity  of  railroad  spikes  and  chairs 
are  made,  besides  some  three  thousand  tons  of  merchant- 
able iron. 

About  200,000  tons  of  coal  are  mined  annually  by  the 
Lacka wanna  Iron  and  Coal  Company,  and  consumed  at 
their  works. 

Some  general  idea  can  be  formed  of  the  imposing  char- 
acter of  the  iron-works  by  the  fact  that  over  two  hundred 
thousand  tons  of  anthracite  coal  per  year  are  consumed  by 


264  HisTORr  OF  THE 

them  alone,  while  they  furnish  employment  to  an  effective 
army  of  two  thousand  men  ! 

The  amount  of  capital  already  expended  by  the  Dela- 
ware, Lackawanua,  and  Western  Hall  road  Company,  in 
their  railroad  and  coal  property,  including  the  Cayuga 
and  Susquehanna  Railroad,  and  the  Warren  Railroad,  in 
New  Jersey,  is,  at  this  time,  over  fifteen  million  dollars, 
and  a  large  amount  will  yet  be  required  to  complete  the 
double  track  and  properly  equip  the  road. 

The  influence  of  the  opening  of  this  great  eastern  and 
western  outlet  upon  a  valley  so  long  shut  out  from  the 
great  world  by  mountain  barriers,  make  as  plain  as  noon- 
day, facts  of  yesterday  and  to-day.  It  is  visible  in  every 
hamlet,  felt  in  every  cottage  by  the  wayside,  and  is  writ- 
ten in  vivifying  lines  everywhere  along  the  Lackawanna ; 
while  the  vast  revolution  it  has  effected  in  monetary 
affairs,  finds  expression  in  the  grand  aggregate  of  pros- 
perity seen  throughout  every  county  in  Pennsylvania  and 
New  Jersey  through  which  the  road  passes.  Much  of  this 
prosperity  is  due  to  Hon.  John  Brisbin,  President  of  the 
road  for  the  last  ten  years,  and  who  has  managed  its 
affairs  with  singular  sagacity  and  skill. 

What  Scranton  lacks  in  antiquity,  is  compensated  for 
in  the  design  of  theoriginal  village  ;  in  its  fine  streets, 
laid  out  with  great  regularity,  and  illuminated  with  gas 
—in  its  ample  water  works,  supplying  the  purest  water 
from  the  upper  Nay-aug — in  its  street  railroads,  which 
traverse  every  portion  of  the  city — in  its  free  schools,  sur- 
passed by  none  in  the  State  ;  in  its  churches,  representing 
so  great  a  diversity  of  religious  sentiment,  in  the  magnifi- 
cence or  the  modesty  of  their  structures,  that  "none  need 
fall  among  thorns  or  thieves;"  in  its  doctors  of  medicine, 
sheltered  by  broad  Latin  diplomas,  which  all  the  diction- 
aries in  the  Vatican  would  not  enable  them  to  read,  skilled 
in  the  wherewithal  to  heal  the  sick  and  invigorate  the 
feeble;  in  its  clever  lawyers,  blustering  when  opposed, 
and  ever  ready  to  mystify  and  perplex  the  simplest  mat- 


LACKA.WANNA    VALLEY.  265 

ter  for  a  fee ;  in  its  doctors  of  divinity  who,  learned  in . 
biblical  affairs,  are  ever  ready 

"By  apostolic  blows  and  knocks 
To  show  tTteir  doctrine  orthodox;" 

in  fact,  by  the  general  intelligence  and  thrift  of  its  inhab- 
itants everywhere  observed  within  its  borders.  Wyoming 
Valley,  worthy  of  the  fame  it  has  acquired  the  world 
over,  boasts  of  its  gray  obelisk  with  an  honest  pride, — of 
its  shire  town,  filled  with  elegance,  wealth,  and  intelli- 
gence, deriving  much  of  its  celebrity  from  being  the  resi- 
dence of  some  of  the  finest  lawyers  in  the  State,  with  its 
streets  shaded  by  long  lines  of  stately  elms ;  and  yet  it 
lacks  the  marvelous  and  irresistible  business  impulse 
which  makes  up  the  enchantment  of  Scranton  City.  Lo- 
cated in  the  very  midst  of  unbounded  mineral  wealth,  it 
will  naturally  exact  tribute  from  the  surrounding  country 
by  the  aid  of  the  numerous  railroads  entering  within  its 
limits,  until  the  villages  that  begirt  it  now  will  expand 
and  commingle  and  involuntarily  become  merged  into  one 
of  the  greatest  cities  of  the  State. 

THE  DICKSON  MANUFACTURING   COMPANY. 

The  first  stationary  steam-engine  used  in  the  valley  of 
the  Lackawarma,  between  Carbondale  and  Wilkes  Barre, 
where  now  no  less  than  Jive  hundred  daily  vindicate  the 
name  of  Stephenson,  was  put  up  in  the  rolling-mill  in 
Scranton  in  1847. 

The  valley,  at  this  time,  had  just  become  an  object  of 
desire  and  competition,  which  led  to  'its  more  energetic 
development.  One  of  the  results  of  that  development 
which  has  aspired  to  make  Scranton  the  great  commercial 
manufacturing  emporium,  is  visibla  in  the  existence  and 
operations  of  the  Dickson  Manufacturing  Company,  which 
was  organized  in  1856. 

This  company,  with  a  capital  of  $500,000,  absorbing 
the  "  Cliff  Works  "  and  "  Planing  Mill "  adjoining  it  in 


266  HISTORY   OF   THE 

Scranton,  and  the  large  foundery  and  machine-shops  of 
Messrs.  Laiming  arid  Marshall  at  Wilkes  Barre,  gives 
steady  employment  to  nearly  a  thousand  men. 

Not  only  is  its  business  immense  in  volume,  but  so 
diversified  in  its  general  character,  that  the  huge,  station- 
ary engine  that  throbs  its  lay  upon  the  Moosic,  or  the 
locomotive  plowing  the  plain  below — the  mining  ma- 
chinery, and  every  mechanical  contrivance  that  can  be 
wrought  from  iron  or  wood  by  the  skill  of  the  artisan 
engaged  in  the  works  of  this  company,  all  promise  a 
measure  of  future  prominence  and  remuneration,  credita- 
ble alike  to  mechanical  genius,  and  its  happy  concentra- 
tion and  encouragement  by  Thomas  Dickson,  the  Presi- 
dent of  this  young,  opulent  association. 

The  following  is  a  list  of  physicians  who  have,  at  one 
time  or  another,  lived  and  practiced  their  profession 
within  the  area  now  embraced  by  the  chartered  limits  of 
Scranton  City :— 


LACKAWANNA    VALLKY. 


267 


Xame*. 

Whtrt,  Settled.    . 

i] 

II 

1 

Remark*. 

Dr.  Joseph  Davis  
••    Orlo  Hamlin  
"    Silas  B   liobinson  

Slocum  Hollow.. 
Providence  

800.... 
813  1815 
823 

.830 
860 

Dr.   Davis  originally  settled    near 
[Spring  Brook. 

Vow  resides  in  Scranton. 

"    Daniel  Seavers  
"    Hiram  Blois              .   .. 

44         '.'."" 

SH 
980 

1S37 
1S40 

Ml 

.... 

4-    Benjamin  H.  Throop... 

'•    William  H.  Pier  
44   Gideon  Underwood  
44   Nehemiah  Hanford  
44    Horace  Hollister  

Hyde  Park  
Harrison  
Providence  

^cranton  
Providence  

-4:! 

[8M 
[849 

!-.-,!  1 

i845 
1846 

1858 
1853 

1847 
1853 

s'o\v  resides  in  Scranton. 
Pittston. 

Surgeon  in  Army  Potomac, 
iemoved  to  Scranton,  1S67.     Preg. 
[Med  Society. 

Removed  to  Scranton,  1863. 
rlyde  Park,  Surgeon  in  Army. 

Asst  ex-Surgeon.  1865,  Prov.  Marsh, 
[office,  Scranton. 
Surgeon  to  the  84th  Pa.  Reg.  during 
Candor,  N.  Y.                   [the  war. 
Resides  at  Factory  ville,  Pa. 

New  York. 
Je.wish  Rabbi,  Scranton. 

Asst.  ex-Surgeon,  1864-5.  in  Scran- 
[ton. 

Wilkes  Barre. 

Ex-Surg.  durg  the  war,  at  Scranton. 
Coroner,  Luzerne  County. 

Scranton. 

Surgeon  during  the  war.  76th  Re?. 
-  [Pa.  Vols. 

Surgeon  8th  and  16th  Pa.  Cavalry. 

44    William  E.  Rogers  
"    Henrv  Roberts"  
*   Julian  N.Wilson  
44    John  B.  Sherrerd  

44    Geor<*e  W.  Masser  

liV- 

41    Bennet  A.  Bouton  
14   Johnathan  Leverett  

Providence  
Scranton  

Dunmore  

1  S.VJ 

ISM 

1853 

1  s,-w 

is54 

iNW 

1805 

44    George  B.  Seamons.  

Hvde  Park  

1854 

1859 

.... 

41   George  B.  Boyd  
41    William  E   Allen 

Scranton  
Hyde  Park  

44    Ralph  A.  Squires  
44    8.  Burton  Sturdevant.. 
4i    Asa  H.  Brundage  
u   Albert  M.  Capwell...  — 

Scranton  
Providence  
Scranton  

Is." 

18M 

1  s,r 

1SJ6 

ijss 

I860 

44    William  Frothingham.. 
44    John  W.  Gibbs  

}sV 

1861 

Hyde  Park  

1  s.")7 

1858 

44    N.  F   Marsh  

1861 

1851 

1860 

i  se- 
ises 

44    Charles  Marr  

u 

44    Erastus  W.  Wells  
44    William  Green 

" 

Is5s 

I8H 

1859 

1  s(V 

44    E.  B  Evens      

Hyde  Park  

1  -.V. 
1  sV 

44    W.  H.  Heath  

44    Thomas  Stewart  
44   J  M   Fox 

Scranton  

I860 

iii;r 

44        

1860|  
1861  1867  ... 
186l!l867  ... 
1S6-21S67  ... 
1865  
18651   .   . 

44    F.  Wagner  

Providence  

44    P.  H.  Moodv....  
44    WiiUmghby  W.  Gibbs.. 
44    Peter  Winters          .  ... 

44    8.  P.  Reed  

1865,1866 
1865J.... 

... 

41   John  W.  Robathan  
44   N.  Y  Lett  

Hyde  Park  

*    A.  W.  Burns 

Providence  
Scranton  

1866'... 

1867J.... 
1867:.... 

18871.... 
1867! 

:::: 

44    Harper  B.  Lackey  
44    J.  B.  Benton  
44    C.  H.  Fisher  

44    L.  F.  Everhart 

44    N.  B.  Roberts  

Hyde  Park  
Scranton  

1st)' 

1861 

44    —  McGinlie  

1867:... 
1867L.  . 

44    William  Haggerty  

44   J.  Williams..  

Providence  1868:.... 

nOMEOPATHISTS. 

Name*. 

Located. 

Arrited.       Left. 

Dr.  A.  P.  Gardner  
44   —  Reynolds  

Scranton  

1854            1859 
1855            185S 
1858            1862 
1862 
1865            1868 
1868 
1868 
1868 

44    A.  P.  Hunt  

" 

u    C.  A.  Stevens  

44    A.  E.  Burr  

"•  J.S.Walter  

Drs.  Clark  &  Ricardo  
Dr.  Sidney  A.  Campbell  

268 


HISTORY    OF    THE 


The  superior  or  relative  status  of  Providence  and  Scran- 
ton  as  business  villages,  h'v.e-and-twenty  years  ago,  is 
plainly  apparent  in  the  enumerated  list  of  medical  and 
legal  gentlemen,  who,  to  advance  their  fortunes  or  achieve 
reputation,  chose  the  former  place'  for  a  residence,  be- 
cause of  its  real  as  well  as  its  expected  importance. 

Lawyers  who  have  for  a  longer  or  shorter  period  lived 
and  practiced  law  within  the  city  limits  of  Scranton  : — 


Names. 

Original 
location. 

When  Admitted. 

Kema/rkt. 

Lewis  Jones,  Jr  
Charles  II.  Silkman.  .  . 
Peter  Byrne  
J.  Marion  Alexander.  . 
ElliotS.  M.Hill  

David  R.  Randall  
Daniel  Rankins 

Carbondale.  .  . 
Providence  .  . 
Carbondale..  . 
Providence  .  . 

u 

August  5,  1834.  . 
January  1,  1838.. 
August  3,  1846.  . 
August  4,  1846.. 
April  5,  1847  

November  4,  1847 
August  7.  1850.  . 

Now  of  Scranton. 

Kansas. 
First  May'r  of  Scranton. 

j  Late    District    Att'y 
(      Luzerne  Co. 

Clerk  of  the  Court 

Washington  G.  Ward. 
Samuel  Sherrerd  
Edward  Merrilield.  .  .  . 

George  Sanderson.... 
*Ezra  B.  Chase  

Hyde  Park.. 
Scranton  .... 
Hyde  Park.. 

Scranton  

November  10,1851 
April  4,  1853  
August  G,  1855... 

Sept.  14,  1857  
April  7,  1857.  .  . 

(  Founder    of     Green 
'(       Ridge. 

Edward  X.  Willard..  . 

Ocorge  D.  Uaiigawout. 
Win.  H.  Pratt  

« 
" 

Nov.  17,  1857  

January  18.  1358. 
January  4,  1859.  . 

{Register  in  the  Dist. 
Court  of  the  U.  S.. 
for    the    Western 
District  of  Pa. 

David  C  Harrington 

Mav  7,  1860  .  . 

Alfred  Hand  .... 

u 

May  s,  18(10.  .  .  . 

Notary  Public. 

Frederiek  L.  Iliteheoek 
John  Handle  v  

May  16,  1860  
August  21,  I860.. 

Aretus  il.  \Vinton.  .  .  . 
Corydon  II.  Wells  
Frederic  Fuller  
W.  Gibson  Jones 

Hyde  Park.  .  . 
Scrauton  .... 

August  22,  I860.. 
August  30,  1860. 
Nov.  13,  I860  ..  . 
April  1,  1861..  .  . 

Notary  Public. 

Charles  Du  Pont  Breck 
Aaron  A.  Christ!.  .  .  . 

" 

August  18,  isfil.. 
August  20,  1862. 

Zebulon  M.  Ward  
James  Mahon  

" 

August  17,  1863. 
Jan.  6,  186.">  

Dist  Att'y  Scrauton. 

M.  J  Bvrrie  

,. 

Dec.  5,  1860  .  . 

Francis  D.  Collins.  .  .  . 

ii 

Dec,  24,  I860.  .  .  . 

Francis  E.  Loornis.  .  .  . 
Daniel  Hannah  

'• 

Feb.  20,  18.I6  
Feb.  21,  1867  

Jeremiah  D.  Regan.  .  . 
Lewis  M.  Bundl  

i 

August  19,  J867.  . 
-  1867.  . 

J.  M.  C.  Ranch  

Isaac  J.  Post  

. 

Charles  (',.  Van  Fleet  ) 
F.  K.  Gunstur, 
Wm.  SUinton.              ) 

Sept.  21.  18G8... 

*  Deceased. 


I.ACKAWANNA  VALLKT.  269 

BLAKELEY. 

"This  township  was  called  Blakeley  from  respect  to  the 
memory  of  Captain  Johnston  Blakeley,  who  commanded 
the  United  States  sloop  of  war  Wasp,  and  who  signalized 
himself  in  an  engagement  with  the  British  sloop  Avon.''11 
It  was  formed  in  April,  1818,  from  "  a  part  of  Providence, 
including  a  corner  of  Greenfield,  east  of  Lackawanna 
mountain."2  It  embraced  Ragged  Island  (now  Carbon- 
dale)  and  the  lands  of  the  Delaware  and  Hudson  Canal 
Company,  then  brought  into  value  by  AVilliam  and 
Maurice  Wurts. 

During  the  Revolutionary  war,  a  bridle-path,  after- 
ward leading  through  Rixe's  Gap  into  the  county  of 
Wayne,  marked  by  trees,  was  made  by  the  trapper  and 
hunter,  but  no  settlement  was  attempted  within  its  yet 
unmeasured  boundaries,  until  comparative  tranquillity 
came  to  Wyoming  and  Lackawanna  in  1786.  In  the 
summer  of  this  year,  Timothy  Stevens,  a  war-worn  veteran 
from  "VVestchester,  New  York,  who  had  served  in  the 
long  struggle  with  courage  and  credit,  moved  into  the 
Blakeley  woods  with  his  family.  No  Indian  clearing  was 
found,  and  but  the  vague  trace  of  the  deserted  wigwam 
appeared  on  the  bank  of  the  stream,  where  he  encamped 
and  began  a  clearing  for  his  home.  Here,  overshadowed 
by  forest,  where  the  pulse  of  the  great  world  only  throb- 
bed in  storms  and  winds,  he  uprolled  his  cabin  from  the 
rough  timber  felled,  and  lived  many  years  with  his  family 
alone.  In  1814,  he  erected  a  grist-mill  upon  the  Lacka- 
wanna, subsequently  known  as  "  Mott'smill,"  the  debris 
of  which  can  yet  be  seen  by  the  road- side,  above  the 
village  of  Price. 

There  came  a  strange  character  here  in  1795,  about 
whom  for  a  time  there  was  great  mystery.  He  carried  a 
gold  snuff-box,  from  which  he  incessantly  inspired  his 

1  Chapman.  *  Court  Records. 


270  HISTORY    OF    THE 

nose,  wore  an  olive  velvet  coat,  was  a  man  of  considerable 
literary  attainment ;  exhibiting  a  good  deal  of 

"Grandeur's  remains  and  gleams  of  other  days," 

He  had  been  a  German  merchant  in  Hamburg,  received  a 
classical  education,  and  was  withal  a  clever  linguist.  His 
name  was  Nicholas  Leuchens.  A  man  of  culture,  fond  of 
display  in  early  life,  he  expended  a  thousand  pounds 
sterling  at  his  wedding.  He  left  his  native  shore  to  escape 
conscription,  landed  in  Philadelphia,  in  August,  1795, 
and  departed  at  once  for  Wyoming  Valley,  just  emerged 
from  internal  discord.  Reaching  Wyoming,  he  strolled 
up  the  Lackawanna  to  the  present  location  of  Pecktown, 
where  he  established  the  first  log-structure  upon  these 
exuberant  lowlands.  This  was  thirteen  years  previous 
to  the  formation  of  Blakeley  into  a  township,  and  Leuchens 
was  at  this  time  the  only  inhabitant  in  this  portion  of 
Providence,  with  the  exception  of  Stevens,  living  a  mile 
or  two  down  the  valley.  Finding  no  owner  for  the  land, 
he  took  possession  of  about  five  hundred  acres,  of  which 
he  never  acquired  a  title.  Here  rose  his  plain  habitation, 
roofed  with  boughs  and  barks,  containing  but  a  single 
room,  in  which  he  piled  successive  layers  of  beds  almost  to 
the  very  roof,  so  as  better  to  repel  the  approach  of  ghosts, 
ever  inspiring  him  with  special  dread.  In  the  winter  of 
1800,  he  taught  a  district  school  in  the  old  jail-house,  in 
Wilkes  Barre,  and  one  of  his  pupils1  thus  describes  the 
school-house.  On  a  little  basin  of  water,  called  "  Yankee 
Pond,"  lying  back  of  the  school-house,  there  was  good 
skating  after  a  cold  snap,  which  the  boys  in  their  rustic 
freedom  regarded  as  a  healthier  developer,  both  of  muscle 
and  mind,  than  the  musty  lore  he  aimed  to  inculcate. 
Leuchens  had  little  control  over  his  school ;  the  larger 
boys  starting  off  to  skate  without  permission,  assent 
would  be  given  to  others  to  follow,  recruit  after  recruit 

'Anson  Goodrich 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  271 

would  be  sent  in  vain  after  the  delinquent  pupils  until 
none  were  left  to  do  homage  to  the  master.  Vexed  at  his 
roguish  and  boisterous  scholars,  he  would  visit  the  skating 
pond  himself.  Being  sixty  years  of  age,  and  near-sighted 
at  that,  his  appearance  was  greeted  with  a  storm  of 
snow-balls,  which  he  was  unable  to  restrain  or  trace  to 
the  mischievous  authors. 

The  mental  power  and  the  forcep-like  grasp  of  the  Ger- 
man trader  distinguishing  him  in  other  days,  forsook  him 
on  his  farm,  with  his  fortune  ;  he  grew  aimless,  indolent, 
and  disheartened,  returned  to  Philadelphia,  where  he 
died,  and  was  buried  by  the  hand  of  charity. 

Upon  the  road-side  from  Providence  to  Carbondale,  be- 
tween the  village  of  Price  and  the  Lackawanna,  can  be 
seen  an  orchard  in  the  meadow  where  John  Vaughn  and 
his  sons  settled  in  1797.  One  of  the  pioneers  in  this  year 
was  Elisha  S.  Potter.  Learning  of  the  rich  wild  lands 
sold  for  a  song  along  the  Lackawanna,  he  left  his  native 
place,  White  Hall,  N.  Y.,  and  sought  them.  Potter 
was  the  first  justice  of  the  peace  in  the  township,  and  so 
well  were  the  vexatious  and  harassing  duties  of  the 
magistrate  performed  by  him,  that  litigating  parties  were 
generally  satisfied  with  his  judgment  and  decisions. 

Moses  Dolph,  the  grandfather  of  Edward  Dolph,  Esq., 
with  the  Ferrises,  made  a  pitch  here  in  1798.  Of  the  chil- 
dren of  Dolph,  none  are  now  living. 

There  were  yet  no  settlers  farther  up  the  valley  than 
Leuchens,  and  sparse  and  poor  indeed  were  the  dwellings 
intervening  toward  Wyoming.  Mt.  Vernon,  formerly  the 
residence  of  Lewis  S.  Watres,  Esq.,  was  cleared  and  occu- 
pied in  1812. 

The  forbidding  aspect  of  the  country  along  the  borders 
of  the  forest,  the  long  severe  winters,  with  their  pro- 
digious depth  of  snow,  rising  often  with  its  long,  white 
lines  of  drift,  to  the  very  tops  of  the  cabins,  and  the 
absence  of  all  roads  to  communicate  with  the  settlement 
below,  imposed  upon  the  inhabitants  the  most  exacting 


272  HISTORY    OF    TIIK 

hardships.  Markings  upon  trees  along  the  woods  directed 
the  path  of  the  pioneer.  No  bridge  spanned  the  Lacka- 
wanna  at  this  time  other  than  the  one  at  Capoose  and  Old 
Forge  ;  all  streams  were  forded,  if  passed  at  all.  Once 
swollen  by  the  lengthened  rain  or  spring  freshet,  all  inter- 
course with  the  neighborhood  was  delayed  or  suspended 
with  as  much  certainty  as  when  the  wintery  months  ren- 
dered crossing  formidable. 

The  earlier  inhabitants  enjoyed  neither  churches,  school- 
houses,  nor  mills.  The  product  of  the  soil,  in  the  shape 
of  corn  and  rye,  was  either  mashed  by  the  simple  stone  or 
wooden  mortar  and  pestle,  or  cooked  and  eaten  whole. 
Bear  meat,  venison,  potatoes,  and  the  scanty  salt,  com- 
prised the  luxuries  of  the  day  ;  potatoes  sometimes  became 
so  scarce  in  the  spring,  that  those  planted  for  seed  were 
re-dug  .in  a  few  instances  to  sustain  a  family  perishing 
with  hunger.1 

For  many  years,  wolves  were  so  bold  and  disastrous 
in  their  inroads  upon  all  live  stock  left  exposed  at 
night,  that  cattle  and  sheep  were  driven  into  high,  strong 
inclosures,  around  which  lires  were  often  lighted  after 
nightfall  for  greater  protection  from  these  abundant 
animals,  whose  howl,  prolonged  with  terrible  distinctness 
and  frequency  at  the  very  door  of  the  cabin,  made  up 
one  of  the  exciting  features  of  border  life. 

Wilkes  Barre,  Stroudsburg,  and  Easton,  furnished  the 
only  stores  within  a  radius  of  iifty  miles,  and  every 
spring,  after  a  line  run  of  sap,  was  the  ox-journey  under- 
taken thither  to  exchange  the  maple  sirup  and  sugar  for 
tea,  calico,  and  salt. 

For  many  years,  sweet  fern  was  substituted  for  tea; 
browned  rye  and  indigenous  herbs  appeared  on  the  table 
for  coffee.  The  pine  knot,  or  "candle-Avood,"  as  the 
Yankees  termed  it,  cheered  the  household  at  night,  and 
blended  its  light  with  the  friendly  shadows  of  the  moon. 

1  Moses  Vaughn. 


LACKAWANNA   VALLKT.  273 

In  1824,  a  post-office  was  established  in  Blakeley,  and 
N.  Cottrill  appointed  postmaster. 

Between  Olyphant  and  Mr.  Ferris' s,  on  the  back  road 
running  from  Olyphant  to  Archbald,  is  seen  a  small  clear- 
ing on  the  bank  of  a  creek,  with  no  house  or  trace  of  a 
cabin,  occupied  as  late  as  1820  by  an  Indian  half-breed, 
with  his  squaw  and  children,  skilled  as  an  "Indian  doc- 
tor." He  never  went  from  home,  nor  received  compensa- 
tion for  his  cures  only  in  the  shape  of  presents ;  and  yet, 
in  the  low  moss-covered  cabin  hid  away  in  the  edge  of  the 
forest,  he  received  many  visits  from  the  credulous  ones  in 
the  valley.  He  died  soon  afterward. 

Blakeley  has  no  scrap  of  local  history.  Originally  em- 
bracing the  primitive  coal-works  of  the  Delaware  and 
Hudson  Canal  Company,  its  prosperity  has  steadily  kept 
pace  with  the  advancement  of  this  company,  until  the 
villages  of  Archbald,  Olyphant,  and  Rushdale,  have  gath- 
ered a  population  of  hardy,  industrious  thousands,  at 
whose  touch  the  anthracite  has  been  awakened  from  its 
dream  and  sent  its  allegiance  from  the  wood-side  down  to 
the  shore  of  the  sea. 

Peckville  is  prettily  situated  on  the  Lackawanna,  does 
a  snug  lumber  business,  while  its  inhabitants,  character- 
ized by  intelligence,  good-nature,  and  liberal  attachments, 
never  yet  have  had  a  single  breach  in  the  social  relations 
of  the  neighborhood. 

Jessup,  a  thriving  village  in  1855,  dwells  in  the  memory 
of  the  inhabitants  of  the  valley  as  a  place  which  started 
into  life  with  too  sanguine  expectations  of  coal  mines,  rail- 
roads, and  iron  developments,  and  was  thus  exposed  to 
a  shock  fatal  to  its  existence  as  a  town. 

One  of  the  first  churches  in  the  valley  was  the  Blakeley 
church.  It  was  raised  and  inclosed  in  March,  1832,  and 
remained  unfinished  for  many  years.  Its  completion  was 
hastened  by  the  ironical  criticisms  of  a  stranger  who,  upon 
passing  it,  remarked  that  he  "  had  heard  of  the  house  of 

the  Lord,  but  had  never  before  seen  his  barn" 
is 


274  HISTORY    OF    TI1K 

YANKEE   WAY   OF   PULLING   A    TOOTH. 

Long  "before  doctors,  armed  with  lancets  and  well-filled 
saddle-bags,  went  forth  in  the  valley,  empowered,  like 
the  beast  in  Revelations,  "to  kill  a  fourth  part,"  at  least, 
of  those  whom  they  might  meet  on  the  way,  the  more 
trivial  duties  of  the  physician  necessarily  fell  upon  the 
patient  himself  or  the  skill  of  some  good-natured  neigh- 
bor, or  perhaps  were  assumed  by  some  officious  doctress, 
whose  roots  ajid  "  yarbs,"  gathered  from  meadow  and 
mountain,  had  such  wonderful  "  r.artu"  in  their  simple 
decoctions  that  no  disease  could  deny  or  resist.  Tooth- 
ache, rarely  treated  with  the  inexorable  dignity  of  turn- 
key or  forceps,  vexed  many  a  nervous  sufferer  by  its  pres- 
ence. Sometimes,  however,  its  court  was  summarily 
adjourned  by  a  process  original,  sudden,  and  cheap. 

Among  the  settlers  in  Blakeley,  at  the  time  spoken  of, 
was  a  long,  lean,  bony  son  of  a  fanner,  troubled  with 
that  most  provoking  of  all  pains,  or,  as  Burns  called  it — 
"thou  h — 11  o'  a'  diseases,"— the  toothache. 

The  troublesome  member  was  one  of  the  wide-pronged 
molars,  as  firm  in  its  socket  as  if  held  in  a  vise.  The 
pain  was  so  acute  as  it  ran  along  the  inilamed  guns,  that 
the  usual  series  of  manipulations  with  decoctions  and 
"  /7^-ments,"  alternated  with  useless  swearing,  failed  to 
bring  relief  to  the  sufferer.  As  the  ache  grew  keener 
with  torture,  a  "  remejil"  agent  was  suggested  and  tried. 
One  end  of  a  firm  hemp  string  was  fastened  upon  the 
rebellious  member,  while  the  other,  securely  fixed  to  a 
bullet,  purposely  notched,  was  placed  in  the  barrel  of  an 
old  Hint-lock  musket,  loaded  with  an  extra  charge  of 
powder.  When  all  was  ready,  the  desperate  operator 
caught  hold  of  the  gun  and  "let  drive.''  Out  ilew  the 
tooth  from  the  bleeding  jaw,  and  away  bounded  the  mus- 
ket several  feet. 

After  this  new  way  of  extracting  teeth  had  thus  been 
demonstrated  by  one  so  simple  and  unskilled  in  the  den- 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  275 

tal  science,  it  became  at  once  the  chosen  and  only  mode 
practiced  here  for  many  years. 

THOMAS   SMITH. 

Among  other  resolute  pioneers  who  sought  the  shores 
of  the  Susquehanna  in  1783,  appears  the  name  of  Thomas 
Smith,  grandsire  of  the  late  T.  Smith,  Esq.,  of  Abington. 

On  the  east  side  of  the  river  below  Nanticoke,  he  laid 
the  foundation  for  his  future  home.  The  great  ice  freshet 
of  1784,  which  bore  down  from  the  upper  waters  of  the 
Susquehanna  such  vast  masses  of  ice,  overflowing  the 
plains  and  destroying  the  property  along  the  river,  swept 
his  farm  of  all  its  harvest  product,  leaving  it  with  little 
else  than  its  gullied  soil.  Hardly  had  his  recuperative 
energies  again  made  cheerful  his  fireside,  when  the 
"pumpkin  freshet,"  as  it  was  called,  from  the  countless 
number  of  pumpkins  it  brought  down  the  swollen  river, 
again  inundated  its  banks,  sweeping  away  houses,  barns, 
mills,  fences,  stacks  of  hay  and  grain,  cattle,  flocks  of 
sheep,  and  droves  of  swine,  in  the  general  destruction, 
and  spreading  desolation  where  but  yesterday  autumn 
promised  abundance. 

Smith,  not  stoic  enough  to  receive  the  visits  of  such 
floods  with  indifference,  moved  up  in  the  "gore"  (now 
Lackawanna  Township)  in  1786,  "for,"  said  the  old  gen- 
tleman, "I  want  to  get  above  high-water  mark." 

His  son,  Deodat.  intermarried  with  the  Alls  worth  fam- 
ily in  Dunmore,  from  whom  sprung  a  large  family  of 
children. 

THE  SETTLEMENT   OF    ABINGTON.1 

Of  the  highlands  of  Abington,  lying  between  the  Sus- 
quehanna River  and  the  Lackawanna,  now  rendered 
productive  by  a  comely  and  industrious  people,  little 
was  known  by  the  white  man  at  the  beginning  of  the 

1  Named  from  Abington,  Connecticut. 


276  HISTOKT  OF  THE 

century,  else  that  its  wild  thresholds  were  crossed  by  the 
Indians'  pathway  from  Capoose  village  to  Oquago,  N.  Y. 

In  1790  a  party  of  trappers,  consisting  of  three  persons, 
penetrated  the  wilderness  where  now  spreads  out  the  rich 
sloping  farm  of  the  late  Elder  Miller,  with  a  view  of 
making  a  settlement,  as  trapping  grew  dull  and  furs  be- 
came scarce.  Here  they  felled  the  underbrush  and  a  few 
of  the  forest  trees,  rolled  them  into  a  cabin  roofed  with 
boughs,  while  the  great  crevices,  liberally  seamed  with 
wedges  of  wood  and  mud,  imparted  to  the  new  structure 
a  Hottentot  appearance.  Their  provisions  having  become 
exhausted,  and  bear  meat  losing  its  relish,  they  shouldered 
their  guns  and  traps  before  the  close  of  summer  and  aban- 
doned the  enterprise,  so  that  no  permanent  settlement  was 
made  until  1794.  In  the  spring  of  this  year  Stephen 
Parker,  Thomas  Smith,  Deacon  Clark,  and  Ephraim 
Leach,  father  of  E.  Leach,  Esq.,  of  Providence,  led  by 
the  intrepid  John  Miller,  on  foot,  slung  their  packs  and 
guns  over  their  shoulders,  and  with  ax  in  hand,  first 
marked  and  widened  this  ancient  pathway  of  the  wild  man 
through  the  mountain  gap,  known  as  Leggett's.  This 
gap,  in  the  low  range  of  the  Moosic,  offered  then,  as  now, 
the  only  natural  eastern  outlet  to  the  township  of  Abing- 
ton.  Before  the  work  was  completed,  it  was  abandoned 
because  of  the  unvarying  obstruction  offered  by  trees  to 
the  passage  of  a  cart  or  wagon,  and  the  declivity  rising 
from  Leggett's  Creek  abruptly  into  the  very  mountain. 
The  slighter  depression  in  the  range,  half  a  mile  south 
of  Leggett's  Gap,  was  then  selected  for  a  wagon  road, 
even  with  the  disadvantages  of  its  treble  height.  In  1791 
encroachments  were  made  upon  the  warriors'  path  through 
the  notch  for  the  passage  of  a  wagon,  when  the  mountain 
road  relapsed  again  into  forest. 

Near  the  location  of  the  present  grist-mill  of  Humphreys, 
the  white  man's  clearing  first  emerged  from  the  Abing- 
tonian  woods.  This  was  made  by  Ebene/er  Leach,  who 
afterward  sold  out  his  right  at  this  point,  and  moved 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  277 

down  in  the  vicinity  of  Leggett's  Gap,  where  he  soon 
became  a  tenant  of  a  small,  low,  log-cabin,  remarkable 
only  for  its  rude  simplicity.  A  clearing  was  niched  out 
upon  the  slope  of  a  hill,  where  the  corn  soon  sprouted 
from  the  fresh  burned  fallow,  and  the  pumpkins,  with 
their  yellow  sides  and  rounded  faces,  threw  a  Yankee 
and  domestic  look  over  a  region  naturally  rugged  and 
lonely. 

Corn  once  raised  and  husked,  was  either  cracked  in 
stone  or  wooden  mortars,  for  the  brown  mush,  or  carried 
in  back-loads  down  to  the  corn-mill  in  Slocum  Hollow, 
to  be  ground.  Sometimes,  when  the  snow  was  deep  or 
drifted,  the  journey  was  made  to  the  mill  upon  the  slow 
and  cumbrous  snow-shoe. 

The  utter  solitude  of  Leggett's  Gap,  interrupted  only 
by  the  screech  of  the  panther  or  the  cry  of  the  wolf,  as 
they  sprang  along  its  sides  with  prodigious  leaps,  made 
even  the  trip  to  mill  perilous  in  the  cold  season  of  the 
year. 

"  Many  a  time,"  said  Leach,  "have  I  passed  through 
the  notch,  with  my  little  grist  on  ray  shoulder,  holding  in 
my  hand  a  large  club,  which  I  kept  swinging  fiercely,  to 
keep  away  the  wolves  growling  around  me ;  and  to  my 
faithful  club,  often  bitten  and  broken  when  I  reached 
home,  have  I  apparently  been  indebted  for  my  life."  At 
length  he  hit  upon  a  plan  promising  exemption  from  their 
attacks. 

Being  told  that  they  were  afraid  of  the  sound  of  iron, 
he  obtained  from  the  valley  below,  a  saw-mill  saw.  To 
this  he  attached  a  strong  withe,  by  which  he  drew  the  saw 
by  one  hand  over  a  trail  or  road,  as  yet  unconscious  of 
the  dignity  of  a  sled  or  a  wheel,  making  a  tinkling  alter- 
nately so  sharp  and  soft  as  it  bounded  over  a  stone  or 
plunged  into  a  root  as  to  inspire  them  at  once  with  fear  so 
great  that  his  passage  was  only  interrupted  after  this  by 
their  indignant  growls. 

During  one  of  his  mill  trips  to  Capoose,  a  timid  fawn 


278  HISTORY    OF    THE 

being  pursued  closely  "by  two  wolves,  ran  up  to  him, 
and  placed  its  head  between  the  legs  of  Leach  to  seek 
protection  from  its  half-starved  pursuers.  This  was  done 
in  a  manner  so  abrupt  and  hurried,  as  to  iirst  convey  to 
the  rider  a  knowledge  of  the  chase.  The  wolves  came  up 
with  abound,  within  a  short  distance  of  where  the  fearless 
arm  interposed  for  the  trembling  animal,  and,  giving  one 
ferocious  view  of  their  white,  sharpened  teeth,  crouched 
away  to  their  retreats. 

So  frightened  had  the  fawn  bqcome,  that  not  until  the 
path  opened  distinctly  upon  the  clearing  of  Leach,  could 
it  be  induced  to  leave  the  side  of  its  protector. 

Deer  and  elk,  at  that  period,  thronged  along  the 
mountains  in  such  numbers  that  droves  often  could  be 
seen  browsing  upon  saplings  or  lazily  basking  in  the 
noonday  sun. 

The  Moose,  from  which  the  mountain  range  bordering 
the  Lackawanna  derived  its  name  of  Moosic,  were  found 
here  in  vast  numbers  by  the  earliest  explorers  in  the 
Lackawanna  Valley.  The  clearing  of  Mr.  Leach  subse- 
quently embraced  the  Indian  salt  spring,  mentioned 
heretofore. 

Parker  and  Smith  located  upon  land  north  of  this,  while 
Clark,  drawn  by  the  delicious  landscape  of  Abington's 
fairest  mount,  plunged  into  the  woods,  where  now  thrives 
a  village  honoring  his  memory,  in  the  preservation  of  the 
name — Clark's  Green. 

On  the  summit  of  the  hill  commanding  such  a  sweep  of 
mountain,  meadow,  lowland,  and  ravine,  as  stretches  to 
the  eye  turned  to  the  south  or  the  east,  there  then  stood 
the  straight  pine  and  the  shaggy  hemlock,  interspersed 
with  the  maple  and  the  beech,  where  was  erected  the  orig- 
inal dwell' Jig-place  of  Deacon  Clark.  It  was  a  substantial 
compact  of  unhewn  logs,  notched  deep  at  either  end, 
placed  together  regardless  of  beauty  or  timber.  The  lloor 
came  from  ask-plank,  full  of  slivers,  unaided  by  the  saw 
or  plane — the  keen  ax  alone  being  responsible  for 


LACK  AW  ANNA   VALLEY.  279 

smoothness  and  finish.  It  was,  withal,  a  comfortable 
affair  built  in  the  wood-side,  some  1,300  feet  above  tide- 
water ;  but  energetic,  contented,  and  industrious,  the  old 
gentleman  passed  under  its  humble  roof  many  a  pleasant 
hour  in  the  long  evenings  of  autumn,  when  the  hearth 
glowed  with  the  crackling  fire,  while  his  daily  duties  were 
to  give  thrift  and  culture  to  one  of  the  finest  farms  in 
Abington. 

John  Lewis,  James  and  Ezra  Dean,  Job  Tripp,  Robert 
Stone,  Ezra  Wall,  and  Geo.  Gardner,  also  settled  in  the 
new  region  the  same  year.  Job  settled  in  the  western 
portion  of  Abington  while  it  possessed  all  its  native  rug- 
gedness.  Most  of  those  who  had  plunged  here  in  this 
old  forest,  were,  like  those  who  had  commenced  along 
the  Lackawanna,  so  poor  as  to  be  unable  to  pay  for  their 
land,  until  from  the  soil,  they  could,  by  their  honest 
industry  and  frugal  management,  raise  the  necessary 
means.  Not  so,  however,  with  Job  ;  he  had  a  little 
money,  and  was  determined  to  make  the  most  of  it.  He 
purchased  a  grindstone  and  brought  it  into  Abington, 
which  for  six  years  was  the  only  one  here.  This  he 
fenced  in  with  stout  saplings,  allowing  no  one  to  grind 
upon  it  unless  they  paid  him  a  stipulated  sum,  and  turned 
the  stone  themselves.  This  enterprise,  although  it  was 
comprehensive  in  irs  design,  and  brought  to  his  barricaded 
grindstone  one  or  two  dull  axes  a  week  of  the  toiling 
chopper,  could  not  bring  into  play  all  the  energies  of  his 
mind,  so  he  fenced  in  much  of  the  woods  by  falling  trees, 
for  a  deer-pen  or  park,  into  which,  after  the  deer  had 
wandered  for  his  morning  browse,  or  had  been  driven  by 
Job,  the  passage  to  the  pen  was  closed,  when  the  deer 
was  to  be  slain,  and  dried  venison  and  buckskin  were  to 
effect  such  a  revolution  in  the  commercial  aspect  of  Abing- 
ton, and  he  was  to  be  the  Midas  who  had  brought  it.  The 
chase  over  the  acres  he  had  thus  fenced  proved  more 
invigorating  to  his  stomach  than  beneficial  to  his  pocket, 
and  the  project  of  the  old  man  died  with  him  a  few  years 


HISTORY    OF   THE 

later,  marked  only  by  the  remaining  debris  of  the  fence 
yet  seen  around  "Hickory  Ridge." 

Elder  John  Miller,  a  man  alike  eminent  for  his  long 
services  as  a  minister,  and  his  virtues  as  a  man,  settled  in 
Abington  in  1802.  lie  was  born  February  3,  1775,  in 
Windham,  Connecticut.  Young,  hopeful,  and  robust,  he 
emigrated  to  the  inland  acres  of  Abington,  where,  fpr 
half  a  century,  identified  intimately  with  its  local  and 
general  history,  he  gave  cheer  and  character  to  society 
around  him  as  much  as  the  brook  crossing  the  meadow 
imparts  a  deeper  shade  and  more  luxuriant  herbage  to 
its  banks.  The  great  influence  he  exerted  over  the  people 
of  the  township  up  until  the  very  day  of  his  death,  in 
February,  1857,  in  keeping  alive  the  spirit  of  improve- 
ment, husbandry,  and  morality,  can  yet  be  observed 
along  the  farms  of  his  neighbors,  in  the  enterprise,  intel- 
ligence, industry,  customs,  and  habits  of  the  yeomanry 
of  Abington.  Previous  to  the  coming  of  Mr.  Miller  to 
"The  Beech,"  as  Abington  was  designated  until  the  for- 
mation of  the  township  in  1806,  few  had  inclined  toward 
its  rigorous  domain.  He  located  upon  the  spot  marked 
and  vacated  by  the  trappers  twelve  years  before,  pur- 
chased three  hundred  and  twenty-six  acres  of  land  for 
forty  dollars — 820  in  silver,  $10  in  the  customary  tender 
of  maple- si i gar,  and  $10  in  tin-ware. 

The  only  store  in  the  county  of  Luzerne  was  kept  in 
Wilkes  Barre  by  Hollenback  &  Fisher,  offering  a  variety 
surpassed  by  the  ordinary  pack  of  the  modern  peddler  of 
to-day.  At  this  store,  Elder  Miller  was  furnished  with 
the  necessary  tin,  which  he  manufactured  into  such  wan; 
as  the  county  called  for. 

Almost  simultaneously  with  his  arrival,  he  began  to 
preach  the  gospel  and  "turn  many  to  righteousness." 
During  this  long  five-and-tifty  years  of  spiritual  labor,  he 
married  nine  hundred  and  twelve  couples,  baptized  (im- 
mersed) two  thousand  persons,  and  preached  the  enor- 
mous number  of  eighteen  hundred  funeral  sermons  before 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  281 

he  was  called  to  receive  his  reward  on  high.  It  was  rare 
to  witness  a  funeral  in  the  valley  when  the  elder  was  in 
his  prime,  and  find  absent  from  the  mournful  gathering 
his  frank,  friendly  face,  ever  full  of  words  of  comfort  and 
kind  reminiscence  of  the  dead. 

For  a  period  of  twelve  years  he  officiated  in  the  valley 
as  the  only  clergyman  laboring  here  of  any  denomination. 

Being  a  practical  surveyor  withal,  there  are  few  farms 
in  the  northern  portion  of  Luzerne  County  he  did  not  trav- 
erse while  tracing  and  defining  their  boundaries.  His  wife 
— an  estimable  lady — was  the  fifth  white  woman  living 
in  Abington.  Elder  Miller,  although  he  held  his  own  plow 
and  fed  his  own  cattle,  was  the  great  representative  of 
Abington,  whose  various  qualifications  to  counsel  and 
console,  whose  characteristic  desire  to  do  good,  whose 
benevolence  of  heart,  grave  but  kind  deportment  as  a  man 
of  the  world  or  the  adviser  of  his  flock,  gave  him  an 
ascendency  in  the  affections  of  the  community  attained 
by  few. 

While  he  has  passed  away,  he  left  behind  him  in  manu- 
scripts events  of  his  life,  and  incidents  in  the  early  history 
and  growth  of  Abington,  whose  publication  could  not  fail 
to  interest  all  who  knew  him,  and  recall  to  the  mind  of 
the  reader  the  gray  head  and  kindly  greetings  of  a  man 
whose  age,  calm,  deliberate  air,  whose  venerable  and  un- 
questioned piety,  and  whose  great  sympathy  in  the  hour 
of  sorrow,  made  him  one  of  the  most  remarkable  persons 
ever  living  in  Abington. 

This  township  was  the  twelfth  one  formed  in  the  county 
of  Luzerne,  and  is  sixty- three  years  old.  At  the  Court  of 
Quarter  Sessions,  held  at  Wilkes  Barre,  August,  1806, 
Abington  was  formed  from  a  part  of  Tunkhannock,  "  Be- 
ginning at  the  southwest  corner  of  Nicholson  township, 
thence  south  nine  and  three-quarter  miles  east  to  Wayne 
County,  thence  by  Wayne  County  line  north  nine  and 
three-quarter  miles,"  etc. 

The  original  inhabitants  were  from  Connecticut  and 


2S2  HISTOKY    OF  THE 

Rhode  Island  ;  and  even  now,  after  the  lapse  of  over  half 
a  century  with  its  mutations,  the  stern  morality,  the  hon- 
est industry,  and  the  social  virtues  literally  impressed 
upon  the  hills  of  the  parent  State,  are  distributed  and  dis- 
tinguished among  their  descendants.  Although  no  evi- 
dence of  coal  or  iron  exhibits  itself  within  the  boundaries 
of  Abington,  it  furnishes  one  of  the  best  farming  and  graz- 
ing areas  found  in  the  county  of  Luzerne. 

The  only  colored  feature  in  the  picture  of  Abington  is  a 
colony  of  negroes,  which,  in  spite  of  the  double  disadvan- 
tage of  prejudice  and  hereditary  indolence,  has  drawn 
from  the  frosty  hills  thereabout  the  wherewithal  to  sus- 
tain animation  in  a  very  creditable  manner. 

ELIAS    SCOTT,    THE    HUNTER. 

Daniel  Scott  emigrated  to  the  Lackawaniia  in  1792.  His 
son  Elias  was  widety  known  throughout  the  country  forty 
years  ago,  as  a  successful  Nimrod,  but  the  encroachments 
of  civilized  life  crowded  the  forest  world  from  his  reach 
with  the  same  remorseless  force  that  the  Indians  have 
been  rolled  up  and  frenzied  to  the  very  base  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains. 

Some  years  ago,  while  he  was  standing  near  the  Wyo- 
ming House,  in  Scranton,  in  an  apparently  thoughtful 
and  sorrowful  mood,  the  writer  asked  him  what  was  the 
matter. 

"Matter!  matter  !"  he  exclaimed,  as  he  looked  up  with 
a  sigh,  and  pointed  his  wilted  hand  and  hickory  cane 
toward  the  depots.  "See  how  the  tarnal  rascals  have 
spiled  the  hunting-grounds  where  I've  killed  many  a  bear 
and  deer.'r 

In  the  autumn  months  he  would  take  long  hunting- 
jaunts,  sometimes  being  absent  a  week  from  his  home. 
Upon  his  left  hand  appeared  unmistakable  evidence  of  an 
encounter  with  a  bear  many  years  ago,  while  out  upon 
such  an  excursion  on  Stafford  Meadow  Brook,  running 


L^CKAWANNA   VALLEY. 

through  the  southern  portion  of  Scranton.  Encamped  at 
night  among  the  willows  on  the  border  of  the  run,  with 
his  leather  knapsack  for  a  pillow,  his  belt,  keen  knife, 
and  long,  heavy  rifle  for  his  companions,  where  the  glare 
of  his  camp-fire  startled  the  fawn  as  it  browsed  along  the 
mountain  side,  or  was  chased  by  the  wolf  or  more  blood- 
thirsty panther  down  into  the  valley,  he  met  old  bruin  at 
daybreak,  as  his  bearship  was  gathering  berries  for  his 
morning  lunch.  His  organs  of  digestion,  however,  did  not 
relish  the  tickling  sensation  of  the  bullet  thrown  from  Scott's 
rifle,  and  he  immediately  approached  the  hunter  with  all 
the  familiarity  and  warmth  of  an  old  friend,  until  he  came 
frightfully  close.  Scott,  declining  his  advances,  retreated 
as  rapidly  as  possible  from  the  wounded  and  enraged 
brute,  and  by  the  frequent  punches  of  his  gun,  now 
empty  and  broken,  avoided  the  embraces  of  the  bear. 
Walking  backward  from  the  animal,  the  heel  of  his  boot 
caught  in  a  treacherous  root  of  a  tree,  and  he  fell  to  the 
ground.  Before  he  could  raise  himself  again,  commenced 
the  death-struggle.  Bruin  sprang  on  the  hunter  with 
such  violence  as  to  rupture  an  internal  blood-vessel,  and 
for  a  moment  the  copious  flow  of  blood  from  his  mouth 
threatened  suffocation.  Smarting  with  the  wound  of  the 
bullet,  the  bear  seized  the  left  hand  of  Scott  in  his  mouth, 
as  it  was  uplifted  to  divert  attention  from  his  throat,  while 
with  his  right  arm  he  drew  from  his  belt  the  well-tried 
trusty  knife.  This  he  plunged  repeatedly  into  the  bear, 
until,  exhausted  from  the  loss  of  blood,  he  fell  dead  on 
the  mangled  hunter. 

Hunters  then  lived  a  life  of  plenty,  for  game  of  all 
kinds  was  so  abundant  at  that  period,  that  in  the  course 
one  year's  casual  hunting,  Scott  killed  one  hundred  and 
seventy-five  deer,  five  bears,  three  wolves,  and  a  panther, 
besides  wild  turkeys  in  great  numbers.  He  has  killed 
and  dressed  eleven  deer  in  one  day,  three  of  them  being 
slain  at  one  shot. 

Mr.  Scott  informed  the  writer  that  many  years  ago,  find- 


284:  HISTORY    OF    THE 

ing  a  rattlesnake  den  on  the  upper  waters  of  Spring 
Brook,  lie  killed  seven  hundred  and  fifty  of  the  reptiles 
in  a  single  day ;  the  next  day  he  slew  three  hundred  and 
seventy-five  more ;  making  a  total  of  thirteen  hundred 
and  twenty-five  of  the  bright  occupants  of  the  rocks  thus 
fraternizing  in  this  snake  castle  or  rendezvous,  and  de- 
stroyed by  the  hand  of  a  single  man.  lie  died  in  the 
summer  of  1867. 

EARLY   HISTORY     OF    THE     SETTLEMENT    OF     "DRINKER'S 
BEECH,"    NOW    COVINGTON. 

As  the  dweller  in  wigwams  turned  his  footsteps  toward 
the  setting  sun,  in  search  of  limiting-grounds  better 
stocked  than  the  Pocono,  he  left  behind  him  no  region 
more  wild  than  the  section  of  country  lying  between  the 
Delaware  and  the  Lackawanna,  known  as  Drinker's 
Beech — a  name  made  popular  by  the  vast  number  of 
beech-trees  growing  upon  lands  owned  by  Drinker.  No 
attention  of  the  white  man  was  directed  to  the  tract  until 
1787.  During  this  year,  and  that  of  1791,  Henry  Drinker, 
Sr.,  of  Philadelphia,  father  of  the  late  Henry  AV.  and 
Richard  Drinker,  purchased  from  the  State  some  twenty- 
five  thousand  acres  of  unseated  land  in  the  Beech,  now 
embraced  by  Wayne,  Pike,  and  Lu/erne  counties.  An 
effort  was  ma'de  in  1788  to  turn  this  purchase  to  some 
practical  account  by  opening  a  highway  through  the 
lands.  It  failed  for  want  of  means.  Four  years  later, 
John  Delong,  a  hardy  woodsman  of  Stroudsburg,  was 
employed,  with  other  persons,  to  mark  or  cut  a  Avagon- 
road  to  these  beechen  possessions,  from  at  or  near  the 
twenty-one-mile  tree  on  the.  north  and  south  road,  which 
was  also  called  the  Drinker  road,  from  the  fact  that  it  was 
opened  principally  at  the  expense  of  Henry  Drinker,  Sr., 
who  was  an  uncle  of  Henry  Drinker,  Jr.,  and  was  withal 
a  large  landholder  in  the  more  northern  portion  of  the 
State. 


LACK  A  WANNA    VALLEY.  285 

The  road  cut  by  Belong  extended  in  a  westerly  direc- 
tion, passed  that  romantic  sheet  of  water,  Lake  Henry, 
crossed  the  -present  track  of  the  Delaware,  Lackawanna, 
and  Western  Railroad,  and  thence  taking  a  southerly 
course,  terminated  on  a  small  branch  of  the  Lehigh,  called 
Bell  Meadow  Brook,  near  the  old  Indian  encampment 
before  mentioned,  upon  the  edge  of  this  run. 

After  the  return  of  the  choppers,  the  road  grew  full  of 
underbrush,  and  forbade  passage  to  all  but  the  hunter 
and  his  game.  In  reopening  it,  in  1821,  the  name  of 
"  Henry  Drinker,  1792,"  was  found  rudely  carved  upon 
a  tree.  i , 

The  late  Ebenezer  Bowman,  Esq.,  of  Wilkes  Barre, 
was  employed  to  pay  taxes  upon  these  lands  as  late  as 
1813,  after  which  time  Henry  W.  Drinker,  as  the  agent, 
offered  them  for  sale  and  settlement. 

In  the  spring  of  this  year,  Henry  Drinker,  Sr.,  with 
his  sons,  Henry  W.  and  Richard  Drinker,  visited  Stod- 
dartsville — a  faint  village  brought  into  being  by  the  late 
John  Stoddard,  who,  being  an  alien,  was  impelled  from 
the  city  of  Philadelphia  to  a  tract  of  land  embracing  the 
Great  Falls  on  the  Lehigh,  where  his  lumbering  opera- 
tions eventuated  into  a  village  of  considerable  note  in  the 
days  of  the  stage-coach  over  Wilkes  Barre  Mountain. 

As  the  southern  portion  of  the  Drinker  lands  lay  on 
the  Lehigh  and  its  upper  tributaries,  about  twelve  miles 
northeast  of  Stcddartsville,  it  was  decided  to  open  a  com- 
munication to  them  from  that  place  by  a  road  nearly  fol- 
lowing the  course  of  the  river,  if  the  same  was  found  at 
all  practicable. 

Previous,  however,  to  running  any  line  of  road,  H.  W. 
Drinker  determined  to  ascend  that  stream  in  a  small  canoe 
or  skiff,  up  to  the  very  mouth  of  Wild  Meadow  Brook — 
now  called  "Mill  Creek."  This  the  old  hunters  and 
sturdy  woodsmen  declared  impossible,  as  the  stream  in 
one  place  was  completely  closed  by  a  compact  body  of 
drift-wood  of  very  large  size  and  great  extent,  on  the  top 


28G  HISTORY    OF    THE 

of  wliich  a  considerable  strata  of  vegetable  and  earthy 
matter  had  accumulated,  and  brushwood  was  growing 
luxuriantly  ;  in  other  places  there  were  swift  and  narrow 
rapids,  beaver  dams,  and  alder  and  laurel,  twisted  and 
interwoven  over  the  very  current  in  such  a  manner  that 
it  seemed  as  if  no  boat  could  ascend  the.  Lehigh,  unless 
carried  upon  shoulders  the  greater  portion  of  the  way,  as 
the  bark  canoes  of  the  Indians  were  sometimes  taken. 
Notwithstanding  these  discouraging  representations,  by 
offering  high  wages,  a  resolute  set  of  axmen  were  at 
length  engaged  to  undertake  this  truly  formidable  task, 
and  after  the  expenditure  of  no  little  energy  and  money, 
accompanied  with  some  of  the  hardest  siccariny  among 
the  choppers,  a  boat  channel  to  the  desired  point  was 
opened  in  the  course  of  two  months. 

The  first  encampment  of  the  Messrs.  Drinkers,  with 
their  choppers,  was  near  the  mouth  of  "Wild  Meadow 
Brook,  where  they  erected  a  bark  cabin,  or  shed,  open  in 
front  and  at  the  sides,  and  sloping  back  to  the  ground. 
Each  man  was  furnished  with  a  blanket,  in  which  he 
rolled  himself  up  at  night,  and  while  a  large  crackling 
fire  blazed  in  front  of  the  cabin  without,  the  soft  hemlock 
boughs  within  furnished  invigorating  repose  after  the 
fatiguing  labors  of  the  day.  Now  and  then,  they  were 
annoyed  by  the  serenade  of  a  school  of  owls,  attracted  to 
the  camp  by  the  strange  glare  of  the  fire,  or  the  piercing 
scream  of  the  sleepless  panther,  watching  the  intruders ; 
in  damp,  rainy  weather,  by  the  bite  of  gnats  or  "  punks," 
as  they  were  termed.  Trout  and  venison  were  so  abund- 
ant around  them,  that  an  hour's  fish  or  hunt  supplied  the 
cabin  for  a  week  with  food. 

This  encampment  was  made  in  1815,  when  this  new 
avenue  .along  the  Lehigh  was  sometimes  used  for  boating 
and  running  logs.  Provisions  and  boards  were  taken  up 
the  stream  from  Stoddartsville  in  a  large  bateau  drawn 
by  a  tough  old  mare,  hitched  to  the  bow  with  a  plow  har- 
ness, and  with  a  setting  pole  to  assist  her  when  there  was 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  287 

a  tight  pull,  and  push  en  derriere  when  the  speed  slack- 
ened too  much  to  suit  the  Rear- Admiral,  as  the  hands 
called  the  driver  and  owner  of  the  animal ;  sometimes 
swimming  through  deep  beaver-dams,  or  scrambling 
along  the  narrow,  rocky  passes  and  rapids,  to  the  aston- 
ishment of  otters,  minks,  and  muskrats,  the  soft-furred 
inhabitants  of  the  banks  of  the  stream. 

"And  if  a  beaver  lingered  there, 
It  must  have  made  the  rascal  stare, 
To  see  the  swimming  of  the  mare." 

In  the  summer  of  1814,  these  lands  were  resurveyed 
by  Jason  Torrey,  Esq.,  of  Bethany,  Wayne  County,  into 
lots  averaging  one  hundred  acres  each.  Lots  were  sold 
at  five  dollars  per  acre,  on  five  years'  credit,  the  first  two 
years  without  interest ;  payment  to  be  made  in  lumber, 
shingles,  labor,  stock,  produce,  or  any  tiling  the  farmer 
offered  or  had  to  spare. 

The  first  clearing  was  made  in  Drinker' s  settlement,  in 
1815,  by  the  late  H.  W.  Drinker,  on  a  ridge  of  land, 
where  he  built  a  log-house,  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
south  of  the  spot  long  adorned  by  his  later  residence. 

During  the  year  1816  a  road  was  surve}red  and  opened 
from  the  Wilkes  Barre  and  Easton  Turnpike,  at  a  point 
about  half  a  mile  above  Stoddartsville,  to  the  north  and 
south  road,  near  the  Wallenpaupack  bridge,  a  distance  of 
some  thirty  miles.  This  road  is  also  known  as  the  old 
Drinker  road. 

At  the  Court  of  Quarter  Sessions,  held  at  Wilkes  Barre 
in  1818,  Covington  was  formed  out  of  a  part  of  Wilkes 
Barre,  embracing  the  whole  of  Drinker' s  possession.  "  In 
honor  of  Brigadier-General  Covington,  who  gallantly  fell 
at  the  battle  of  Williamsburg,  in  Upper  Canada,  the 
court  call  this  township  Covington."  *  H.  W.  Drinker 
being  an  intimate  friend  of  General  Covington,  this  name 
was  given  to  the  new  township  at  his  suggestion. 

'Court  Records,  1818. 


288  HISTORY   OF   THE 

Among  the  earlier  settlers  were  John  Wragg,  Michael 
Mitchell,  Lawrence  Dershermer,  Ebenezer  Covey,  John 
and  William  Ross,  John  and  George  Fox,  John  and 
Lewis  Stull,  Samuel  Wilohiek,  Archippus  Childs,  John 
Lafrance,  John  Genthu,  Henry  Ospuck,  John  Fish, 
David  Dale,  Edward  Wardell,  John  Thompson,  Mathew 
Hodson,  Peter  Rupert,  AVesley  Hollister,  John  Besecker, 
Jacob  Swartz,  Nathaniel  Carter,  Samuel  Buck,  Richard 
Edwards,  John  Koons,  and  Barnabas  Carey. 

The  Philadelphia  and  Great  Bend  Turnpike,  originated 
})y  Drinker,  whose  name  it  still  bears,  was  the  first  to 
gain  admittance  into  the  valley  from  the  east  as  a  public 
highway.  This  turnpike  commenced  at  the  Belmont  and 
Easton  road,  some  three  miles  above  Stanhope,  and  ran 
thence  a  northerly  course  to  the  Susquehanna  and  Great 
Bend  Turnpike,  at  a  point  near  Ithamar  Mott's  tavern,  in 
Susquehanna  County. 

The  charter  for  this  road,  over  sixty  miles  of  vast  inland 
frontier,  was  obtained  in  1819,  but  the  State,  willing  to 
foster  an  enterprise  promising  to  enlarge  its  development 
and  dignity,  had  so  little  faith  in  the  civilizing  advan- 
tages of  this  proposed  road  that  it  favored  it  with  the 
limited  subscription  of  only  812,000.  The  balance  of  the 
stock  was  taken  by  the  Messrs.  Drinkers,  Clymer, 
Meredith,  and  other  wealthy  landholders.  Drinker,  who 
located  the  road,  superintended  its  general  construction, 
and  was  elected  president  of  the  company. 

The  four  villages,  Moscow,  Dunning,  Dalesville,  and 
Turnersville,  diversifying  the  agricultural  centers  among 
the  hills  and  dales  of  the  Beech,  are  all  increasing  in 
population  and  importance,  and  yet  have  ample  room  for 
expansion. 

SETTLEMENT   OF   JEFFERSON. 

Although  Jefferson  Township  was  only  formed  in  1836, 
from  Providence,  its  settlement  dates  back  to  1784,  when 
Asa  Cobb,  taking  advantage  of  the  repose  succeeding  the 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  289 

Revolution,  located  his  cabin,  and  made  a  clearing  at  the 
foot  of  one  of  the  larger  and  steeper  elevations,  deriving 
its  name  from  him,  Cobb's  Mountain,  as  it  sends  down 
its  steep  slope  to  the  old  Connecticut  road  crossing  the 
range  at  this  high  point.  This  cabin,  offering  its  unwa- 
vering hospitality  to  friend  or  foe  from  Wyoming,  was  the 
primitive  structure  in  Jefferson,  and  its  former  location  is 
indicated  by  the  mansion  of  his  great-grandson,  Asa  Cobb. 
Between  the  solitary  dwelling  in  Dunmore  and  the 
clearing  at  Little  Meadows,  in  Wayne  County,  a  distance 
of  sixteen  miles  eastward,  the  cabin  of  Mr.  Cobb  was 
for  many  years  the  only  one  intervening.  In  1795  Mr. 
Potter  chopped  a  place  for  his  home  in  the  extreme 
eastern  border  of  the  township  and  county,  upon  a  trib- 
utary of  the  Wallenpaupack  issuing  from  Cobb's  Pond. 

Jefferson  has  achieved  no  local  history  of  interest,  yet 
its  uplands  were  once  familiar  to  the  savage  clans  crossing 
from  the  Delaware  to  their  Wyoming  villages.  Upon  the 
very  summit  of  the  mountain,  north  of  the  old  Cobb 
house,  the  camp  and  signal  fires  of  the  Indian  often  rose, 
as  the  hunter  or  warrior  gathered  around  the  resinous 
logs,  while  the  flames  of  the  fire  glowing  high  and  red 
among  the  tree-tops,  were  visible  miles  away  to  the 
eastward.  At  an  early  period,  a  large  number  of  Indian 
implements,  to  smite  an  enemy  or  secure  the  game,  were 
found  commingled  with  the  debris  of  these  upraised 
encampments.  The  township  is  sparsely  settled,  and 
generally  covered  with  timber,  yet  in  spite  of  its  altitude, 
it  possesses  a  few  farms  of  surprising  fertility  and 
beauty. 

The  Moosic  or  Cobb's  Mountain,  interposing  its  granite 
bowlders  between  Jefferson  and  the  Lackawanna,  has 
shut  off  all  traces  of  coal  formation,  yet  a  coal  mine  was 
discovered  east  of  this  range,  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago, 
by  a  voluble,  inventive  genius,  who  was  promised  a  farm 
by  the  owner  of  the  land,  should  the  explorer  find  coal  in 
a  certain  locality.  Making  an  excavation  deep  in  the 

19 


290  HISTORY    OF    THE 

mountain  side,  he  actually  toiled  weeks  in  carrying 
upon  his  shoulder  baskets  of  anthracite  for  a  distance  of 
six  miles  before  the  blackened  appearance  of  the  drift 
gave  satisfactory  evidence  of  the  existence  of  coal.  The 
owner  of  this  supposed  coal  property,  always  liberal  in 
his  gifts,  cheered  by  his  good  luck  in  the  discovery, 
promptly  deeded  a  tract  of  land,  from  his  many  thousand 
acres,  as  a  reward  to  the  finder,  who.  like  the  kind- 
hearted  possessor,  lived  long  to  join  in  the  laugh  at  the 
joke. 

The  country  east  and  southward  of  Cobb's,  alternating 
with  forest  and  meadow,  possesses  much  of  the  gloom 
natural  to  the  primitive  wilderness  in  America  when 
trodden  by  the  warriors.  Wild  beasts,  to  a  certain 
extent,  inhabit  the  ravines  and  woods  extending  from 
this  point  to  the  head-waters  of  the  Lehigh  over  the 
Shades  of  Death,  on  the  Pocono,  and  haunt  in  places  less 
accessible  to  the  footsteps  of  the  hunter,  making  now  and 
then  such  demonstrations  upon  the  farmers'  sheep-pens  as 
to  satisfy  the  fastidious  that  the  keen,  frosty  air  of  the 
mountain  imparts  a  keener  whet  to  the  appetite  than  rum. 

The  winter  of  1835  was  one  of  great  length  and  severity, 
from  the  vast  quantity  of  snow  which  had  fallen.  It  Jay 
upon  the  ground  for  many  weeks  four  and  five  feet  in 
depth  on  the  level,  while  drifts,  crossed  only  upon  snow- 
shoes,  often  rose  to  a  prodigious  height.  Game  perished 
on  the  mountains  in  large  numbers,  and  wolves  even  sought 
the  settlements  for  food.  A  gray,  lean  wolf,  thus  impelled 
by  hunger,  found  its  way  into  the  barn-yard  of  the  late 
John  Cobb,  P^sq.,  in  Jefferson,  during  the  winter,  while 
the  members  of  the  family,  with  the  exception  of  Mrs. 
Cobb,  were  absent  from  home.  The  commotion  among 
the  sheep  in  the  yard,  some  distance  from  the  house, 
attracted  her  attention.  With  a  heroism  that  rose  instinct- 
ively with  the  occasion,  Mrs.  Cobb,  though  naturally  a 
mild  and  slender  lady,  caught  the  pitchfork  in  her  hand 
and  hurried  forth  to  repel  or  dispatch  the  intruder.  This 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  291 

was  comparatively  an  easy  matter  for  the  brave  woman, 
as  the  brute,  in  its  starved  condition,  had  become  enfee- 
bled, and,  although  for  a  moment  it  turned  its  lurid  eye 
and  long,  white,  keen  teeth  upon  the  assailant,  it  soon  fell 
a  trophy  to  a  woman  whose  sterling  courage,  thus  dis- 
played, exhibited  in  a  broader  and  better  light  the  require- 
ments and  qualifications  of  the  earlier  women  of  the  coun- 
try. For  the  scalp  of  the  wolf,  Luzerne  County  paid  Mrs. 
Cobb  the  usual  reward  or  bounty  at  that  time  of  ten 
dollars. 

There  lived  upon  a  time  in  Jefferson  a  man  of  fair  men- 
tal endowments,  upright  and  honorable,  glib  in  speech, 
of  unmeasured  egotism,  whose  ambition  led  him  to  hope 
for  a  division  of  the  great  county  of  Luzerne  and  the  selec- 
tion of  the  green  plateau  of  his  plantation  for  the  county 
seat.  Visions  of  court-house,  jail,  and  prominence,  rose 
before  him  as  he  diffused  his  convictions  among  all  par- 
ties throughout  the  county  with  a  persistency  worthy  of 
success,  urging  the  cutting  in  twain  of  its  ancient  bounda- 
ries for  the  especial  good  of  the  Beech  and  Jefferson,  offer- 
ing land  gratuitously  for  the  public  buildings  ;  and,  as  a 
final  unanswerable  counterpoise,  the  old  gentleman,  in  his 
enthusiasm  for  his  favorite  scheme,  exclaimed  to  the 
writer,  "Rather  than  see  the  thing  fail,  I  would  consent 
to  act  as  judge  myself  the  first  year  or  two  for  nothing." 

CHASED    BY  A  PAISTTHEK. 

To  the  east  of  Cobb's  clearing,  eight  or  ten  miles  upon 
the  old  Connecticut  road,  nestles  down  at  the  foot  of  a  long 
hill  a  tract  of  low,  swampy  land,  known  in  the  ancient 
Westmoreland  Records  by  the  name  of  "  Little  Meadows." 
Two  natural  ponds,  flooding  hundreds  of  acres,  lying  a 
mile  apart,  divided  by  a  strip  of  wild  meadow-land  grown 
over  with  coarse  grass  and  willows,  afforded  the  earliest 
pioneers  to  Wyoming  a  place  to  cheer  their  cattle  with 
food,  and  led  to  the  adoption  of  the  name.  The  first  set- 


292  HISTORY    OF    THE 

tlement  in  the  county  of  Wayne,  aside  from  that  upon  the 
Delaware,  was  made  upon  the  edge  of  this  meadow. 
From  this  place  to  the  Paupack  settlement,  a  distance  of 
less  than  a  dozen  miles,  stretched  the  woods,  unbroken  save 
by  a  single  farm-house,  kept  for  a  tavern,  remarkable  for 
its  neatness  within,  and  its  Slovenish  appearance  without. 
A  portion  of  this  distance  is  swamp-land,  grown  full  of 
alder,  laurel,  beech,  and  the  long,  wrinkled  hemlock,  and 
is  a  continuation  of  the  swamp  or  "Shades  of  Death," 
extending  their  desolating  aspect  for  a  great  space  along 
the  Pocono. 

Midway  through  this  swamp  flows  the  Five-mile  Creek 
in  the  most  sluggish  manner,  from  which  the  land  upon 
either  side  of  it  gradually  ascends  for  a  distance  of  three 
or  four  miles. 

In  the  autumn  of  1837,  while  the  writer  was  passing 
from  this  tavern  homeward  on  one  bright,  frosty  mid- 
night, accompanied  by  a  friend,  just  as  the  clearing 
receded  from  the  view,  the  horse  and  ourselves  were 
startled  by  the  loud  cry  of  a  panther,  coming  from  the 
thicket  along  the  road-side.  The  dry  limbs  cracked  as  the 
enormous  creature  sprang  into  the  road  behind  us,  and  it 
is  difficult  to  tell  whether  horse  or  the  whitened  drivers 
most  appreciated  the  perilous  condition.  The  moon  shone 
bright  down  among  the  opening  tree -tops,  as  over  the 
road,  frozen,  steep,  and  stony,  trembled  the  slender 
vehicle.  Deeper  and  farther  the  forest  closed  up  behind 
us,  leaving  little  chance  for  us  to  reach  Little  Meadows  in 
safety.  Turning  the  eye  backward,  and  the  approaching 
form  of  the  panther  could  be  seen  within  a  stone's  throw, 
leaping  along  at  a  rate  of  speed  corresponding  with  our 
own.  The  silence  of  the  woods,  stretching  back  in  such 
utter  loneliness,  the  sound  of  the  nervous  horse-feet,  the 
jar  of  the  wagon  over  the  stones,  the  terribly  distinct  yells 
of  the  pursuing  animal  breaking  in  upon  the  surrounding 
gloom,  and  our  own  defenseless  condition,  made  such  an 
impression  upon  boyhood — that  its  mention  here  may  seem 


LACK  AW  ANN  A    VALLEY. 

a  wide  digression — it  never  was  effaced  or  forgotten.  We 
shot  down  hill  after  hill,  around  curve  after  curve,  with 
fearful  rapidity,  without  uttering  a  word  or  hardly  draw- 
ing a  breath,  fearing  every  moment  that  the  wagon  would 
either  prove  treacherous  to  its  trust,  or  that  every  leap  of 
the  panther  would  interrupt  our  ride.  For  three  miles, 
down  to  the  brook  and  over  it,  did  the  yellow  beast  follow 
up  our  trail,  uttering  as  it  came  its  shrill,  appalling  cries 
at  intervals  of  every  minute.  Crossing  the  creek  on  a 
rude,  log  bridge  here  thrown  across  the  stream,  the  horse, 
conscious  of  the  danger,  sniffed  instinctively,  hurried  up 
the  ascent  with  all  possible  speed,  while  the  panther, 
slackening  his  pace  perceptibly  and  ceasing  his  cries,  led 
us  to  believe  that  the  chase  was  abandoned.  Not  so, 
however.  As  we  emerged  from  the  woods  into  the  edge 
of  Little  Meadows,  where  courage  rose  to  a  wonderful 
pitch,  we  gave  one  "hollo  !"  to  ascertain  the  whereabouts 
of  the  animal,  hesitating  whether  to  leave  or  spring  upon 
us.  Hardly  had  the  echo  of  our  voices  returned  from  the 
wood- side  before  the  replying  scream  of  the  panther 
reached  us,  in  accents  so  distinct  and  appalling  as  to 
remove  all  desire  or  effort  to  hold  further  intercourse 
with  his  panthership. 

As  for  the  panther,  which  had  accompanied  us  six  or 
eight  miles  during  our  moonlight  flight,  with  no  benevo- 
lent intentions,  we  took  leave  of  his  society  with  less 
regret  than  we  had  left  the  fair  ones  at  the  homestead  on 
the  Paupack. 

DUNNING. 

Madison  Township,  embracing  an  area  of  twenty-eight 
square  miles,  much  of  which  is  timbered  with  the  knotted 
hemlock  or  the  smoother  beech  or  maple,  was  formed 
from  Covington  and  Jefferson  in  1845. 

Pleasant  Valley,  lying  ten  miles  east  of  Scranton,  on 
the  Delaware,  Lackawanna,  and  Western  Railroad, 
within  this  township,  is  a  deep  vale  scooped  out  of  the 


294  HISTORY   OP  THK 

hills  for  the  passage  of  Roaring  Brook,  in  its  descent  to 
the  Laekawanna,  where  the  village  of  Dunning  animates 
the  spirit  of  industry,  and  carries  on  a  proiitable  traffic 
with  the  people  of  Drinker's  Beech.  Like  the  Lacka- 
wanna  region,  this  short  and  narrow  valley  bears  evidence 
of  once  having  been  a  lake,  whose  waters,  enlivened  by 
fish  and  water-fowl,  were  liberated  with  heavy  murmur 
through  the  fractured  mountain  below.  About  one  mile 
west  of  the  village,  "Barney's  Ledge,"1  a  long,  bold 
bending  of  vertical  rock,  rises  up  some  live  hundred  feet 
at  the  door  of  Cobb's  Gap,  with  rugged  outlines,  and, 
stretching  its  strong  arms  right  and  left,  half  encircles  the 
village  in  its  embrace.  The  old  Drinker  turnpike,  once 
merry  with  the  passing  stage-coach,  finding  its  way  from 
Providence  to  Stroudsburg,  and  the  light  track  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Coal  Company,  pass  through  it. 

Hunter's  Range,  once  famed  for  its  trout-fishing  and 
whisky,  lies  in  the  vicinity.  Although  the  rough  sides 
of  Pleasant  Valley,  capable  of  great  cultivation  and 
production,  if  brought  out  by  patient  toil,  are  marked  by 
an  eruption  of  stumps  wherever  cleared,  there  is  a  fresh 
business  air  about  the  village,  with  its  vast  leather-trade 
and  lumbering  interests,  that  arrests  the  attention  of  the 
passe rT  and  that  gives  assurance  that  when  the  seal  ping- 
ax  disperses  the  forest  farther  from  the  brook,  it  will,  in 
point  of  thrift  and  enterprise,  excel  many  older  towns 
upon  the  line  of  this  great  locomotive  road. 

Hon.  Abram  B.  Dunning,  who  represented  Luzerne 
County  in  the  Pennsylvania  Legislature  in  a  manner 
BO  eminently  satisfactory  to  his  constituents  during  the 
years  1852-3-4,  as  to  be  thrice,  elected — a  compliment 
seldom  paid  in  this  county — has  grown  up  with  the  place, 
and  given  it  a  name  and  an  impetus  alike  permanent  and 
favorable  in  its  character.  Dunning  enjoys  the  advan- 
tages of  a  depot,  two  stores,  post-office,  two  hotels,  and  a 

1  Named  from  the  late  Barney  Carey,  who  for  many  years  kept  a  toll-gate  on 
the  Driukcr  turnpike,  within  view  of  this  lodge. 


LACKAWANNA     VALLKY.  295 

large  tannery  of  Engine  Snyders,  able  to  convert  quarter 
of  a  million's  worth  of  raw  hides  each  year  into  ready 
leather. 

CARBONDALE. 

Carbondale  Township,  underlaid  with  rich  seams  of  coal, 
lies  on  the  Lackawanna,  twenty-four  miles  from  its  mouth, 
some  700  feet  above  the  level  at  its  confluence,  and  was 
formed  from  Blakeley  and  Greenfield,  in  April,  1831.  On 
the  eastern  slope  of  the  Moosic,  near  the  present  location 
of  Way  mart,  Captain  George  Rix,  whose  name  lives  in 
the  notch  of  the  mountain,  chose  a  dwelling-place,  before 
Way  mart  had  even  a  name.  This  led  to  the  settlement  of 
Ragged  Islands  (now  Carbondale)  by  David  Ailsworth  in 

1802.  He  was  a  farmer  from  Rhode  Island.     He  fixed  Ms 
habitation  in  the  spring  of  this  year  upon  the  spot  known 
since  1830  as  the    "Meredith    Place,"    cut  away  and 
burned  the  forest  for  a  single  crop  of  corn  he  planted 
and  secured  by  his  little  cabin :  in  the  fall  returned  for  his 
family.     The  backwoods  became  his  permanent  abode  in 

1803,  and  by  the  aid  of  his  trap,  gun,  and  new  land  pro- 
ductions, he  lived  a  life  of  contented  obscurity.     His  self- 
reliant  wife  wove  and  spun  every  yard  of  clothing  material 
worn,  other  than  that  manufactured  from  furs  and  skins, 
secured  with  little  trouble  from  the  bold  inhabitants  of 
the  woods.     Franklin  Ailsworth  ascended  the  Lacka- 
wanna from  Capoose,  to  share  the  fortune  of  his  father,  in 
1806.     A  daughter  of  Mr.  Ailsworth,  66  years  old,  famil- 
iarly called  "  Aunt  Ruth  AVaderman,"  who  accompanied 
her  mother  here  in   1802,  yet  lives  above  Carbondale. 
The  first  white  child  born  in  Carbondale  was  born  on  the 
Meredith  Place  in  1806.     The  second  family  that  ventured 
into  the  Carbondale  wilderness  was  James  Holden,  who 
in  1805  chopped  and  logged  a  piece  of  land  near  Ailsworth. 
He  abandoned  it  the  second  year,  and  moved  into  the 
Lake  country. 

Peter    Waderman   and    James    Lewis    moved    upon 


296  HISTORY    OF    THE 

Ragged  Island  in  1807.  Lewis  abandoned  his  clearing 
the  second  year,  while  Waderman  reared  up  a  bevy  of 
sturdy  youngsters.  The  attire  of  Mr.  Waderman,  when 
full,  was  imposing  and  unique.  A  bear-skin  worn  for  a 
coat,  the  fore-legs  serving  for  the  sleeves,  a  fawn-skin 
vest,  buck-skin  pants,  and  a  raccoon  cap,  with  the  tail 
hanging  behind  when  worn,  set  off  his  tall  figure  to 
great  advantage,  and  when  he  visited  Capoose,  to  vote  or 
carry  his  grist  to  Slocum's  mill,  children  stood  dismayed 
or  fled  to  their  mothers  at  his  approach.  Near  where  the 
toll-gate  stands,  below  Carbondale,  Roswell  B.  Johnson, 
from  New  York,  who  had  married  a  Boston  lady,  took 
possession  of  land  covered  with  the  tall  hemlock  and  the 
low  thicket  in  1809,  and  lived  upon  it  for  live  years. 
The  "big  flats,"  now  occupied  by  a  portion  of  Carbon- 
dale,  was  never  disturbed  until  1809.  During  this  year, 
George  Parker  and  his  son-in-law,  Winley  Skinner,  both 
more  familiar  with  the  rifle  than  the  ax,  cut  away  the 
timber  for  a  corn-patch  early  in  the  spring  of  1809.  A 
small,  one  story  log-hut,  warmed  by  the  abundance  of 
fuel  lying  at  the  door,  supplied  them  with  shelter  the  few 
months  they  inhabited  it,  when  they  abruptly  withdrew 
from  the  place,  in  despair  of  ever  seeing  it  emerge  into 
civilization.  The  green  logs  soon  rotted  down,  and  the 
young  saplings  again  triumphed  in  the  place  where  the 
cabin  stood. 

In  1810  Christopher  E.  Wilbur,  an  ingenious  wheel- 
wright from  Dutchess  County,  N.  Y.,  became  a  resident 
of  the  farm  now  occupied  by  Horace  Stiles.  He  emigrated 
hen?  to  manufacture  wooden  wheels,  then  used  along  the 
borders  for  spinning  wool  and  flax,  worked  by  the  foot  or 
hand.  There  was  no  other  wheelwright  along  the  Lacka- 
wanna  other  than  him,  and  so  clever  was  his  hand  in 
working  wood  for  the  use  of  the  busy  housewife,  that 
every  iireside  in  the  valley  was  gladdened  by  the  hum  of 
his  wheels.  In  1812  he  erected  a  miniature  corn  or  grist- 
mill upon  the  stream  where  he  lived.  It  had  no  bolt,  and 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY. 

but  a  single  run  of  stone  diversified  its  work ;  corn, 
crushed  by  its  rudely  wielded  power,  had  to  pass  through 
a  common  seive  before  being  fit  for  use.  Mr.  Wilbur 
was  a  plain,  practical  man,  and  his  house  afforded  a  place 
for  a  school  and  meetings  as  early  as  1813  ;  Elder  John 
Miller  and  Mr.  Cramer  alternately  itinerated  their  diverse 
doctrines  at  this  point  once  a  month. 

Carbondale,  by  its  origin  and  nature  a  mining  village, 
as  indicated  by  its  name,  owes  the  vigor  of  its  develop- 
ment to  the  genius  of  William  and  Maurice  Wurts.  In 
1814-15,  these  true  pioneers  in  the  valley,  with  compass 
and  pick,  a  knapsack  of  provisions  slung  over  their 
shoulders,  penetrated  and  bivouacked  along  the  eastern 
range  of  the  Moosic,  exploring  every  gorge  and  opening 
favoring  the  exit  of  coal,  two  bodies  of  which  they  found, 
and  uncovered  a  few  years  later,  by  the  aid  of  Mr.  Nobles 
and  Mr.  AVilbur,  one  at  Carbondale,  under  the  bluff,  on 
the  western  edge  of  the  Lackawanna,  the  other  on  a  strip 
of  half-cleared  land  in  Providence,  since  known  as  the 
Anderson  farm.  The  wild  land  about  Carbondale,  orig- 
inally owned  by  an  Englishman  named  Russell,  living  at 
Sunbur}^  came  into  possession  of  William  and  Maurice 
Wurts  at  the  time  of  these  explorations. 

In  November,  1822,  these  men,  in  quest  of  honest 
reward  for  their  labors,  cheered  onward  by  no  friendly 
hand  from  the  inhabitants  of  the  upper  or  lower  valley, 
laughed  at  for  their  perseverance  in  digging  among  rock 
and  rattlesnakes  for  naught,  erected  a  long,  low  log- 
house  for  the  joint  occupancy  of  themselves  and  their 
workmen.  Up  until  this  time  but  a  single  horse-path, 
showing  its  narrow  and  indefinite  outline  by  marks  upon 
trees,  led  to  the  site  of  Carbondale,  and  passed  through 
Rixe's  Gap  to  Belmont  and  Bethany. 

Dundaff — named  from  Lord  Dundaff,  of  Scotland — 
became  a  place  of  some  note  in  the  backwoods  before 
Carbondale  enjoyed  even  the  honor  of  an  appellation. 
Redmond  Conyngham,  an  uncle  of  our  excellent  judge  of 


298  HISTORY   OF   TIIK 

the  county  pf  Luzorne,  purchased  the  land  whore  the 
village  now  stands  in  1822,  laid  it  out  for  a  town,  whose 
growth  was  to  be  stimulated  by  the  rugged  agricultural 
developments  of  the  country,  and  by  the  considerable 
travel  on  the  Milford  and  Owego  turnpike,  which  passed 
through  the  place  as  a  stage  route.  Three  or  four  small 
houses  stood  here  before  this  time. 

The  settlement  expanded  into  a  village  of  such  prospect, 
that  Mr.  Stone  Hamilton  started  a  democratic  weekly 
newspaper,  called  the  Dundaff  Republican,  the  first 
number  of  which  was  issued  in  February,  1828.  It  was 
the  only  paper,  with  the  exception  of  one  or  tAvo  pub- 
lished in  AVilkes  Barre  at  this  time,  issued  within  the 
county  of  Luzerne. 

James  W.  Goff,  Esq,,  afterward  sheriff  of  the  county, 
raised  the  iirst  frame-house  in  Carbondalo}  in  October, 
1828.  For  a  series  of  years  the  development  of  the 
village,  enriched  by  its  subterranean  possessions,  sur- 
passed in  promise  and  rapidity  every  settlement  within 
the  county.  Churches  were  built,  a  railroad,  licensed  by 
mountain  planes,  led  its  iron  way  to  the  waters  of  the 
Dy berry,  and  a  spirit  of  thrift  blended  its  impulse  with 
the  sober  notions  of  the  farmers  of  the  surrounding  town- 
ships, hitherto  poor  and  embarrassed.  Awakened  thus 
by  the  activity  of  these  brothers,  whose  spirit  and  effort 
unlocked  the  mountains  of  the  Lackawanna,  and  gave 
luster  ,to  a  name  unhonored  in  their  earlier  achieve- 
ments, the  village,  deriving  nurture  from  the  operations  of 
the  company,  of  which  they  wen?  the  organic  head, 
compares  favorably  to-day  with  the  towns  of  the  lower 
valley. 

The  principal  persons  who  found  remunerative  occu- 
pation in  the  new,  prosperous  coal  settlement,  prior  to 
1832,  were  James  Dickson,  Charles  Smith,  Tlios.  Youngs, 
Stephen  Mills,  Dr.  Thomas  Sweet,  Salmon  Lathrop,  John 
M.  Poor,  Samuel  Hay  nor,  Stephen  Rogers,  1).  Yarington, 
Esq.,  11.  E.  Marvin,  Henry  Johnson,  Hiram  Frisby, 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY. 


299 


James  Archbald,  H.  Hackley,  John  McCalpine,  and  E. 
M.  Townsend. 

Carbondale  is  now  an  incorporated  city,  rugged  some- 
what in  the  general  style  of  its  architecture,  and  yet  from 
the  uplifted  anthracite  within  and  beyond  its  boundaries, 


FIRST    BAPTIST    CIIUEO11    IN    CARBONDALE. 


it  gives  employment,  and  even  a  comparative  competency, 
to  its  thousands  of  inhabitants. 

It  abounds  in  churches,  the  first  of  which,  the  First 
Presbyterian  church,   was  erected  in  1829.      However 


300  HISTORY    OF    THE 

counter  and  diverse  may  be  the  religious  convictions 
of  the  mass,  ample  scope  for  their  harmonious  enjoyment 
is  here  found  in  the  different  churches,  representing  every 
Christian  denomination. 

The  oldest  coal-mines  of  the  Delaware  and  Hudson 
Canal  Company  are  located  at  this  point,  which  was  for 
many  years  the  western  terminus  of  their  railroad  leading 
to  the  canal  at  Honesdale.  The  first  car-load  of  coal 
passed  over  this  road,  October,  9,  1829. 

Maurice  and  William  Wurts,  in  1816,  attempted  to 
transport  a  sample  of  coal  across  the  mountain  to  the 
Paupack  waters  upon  sleds,  from  a  superficial  body  they 
had  uncovered  in  Providence  township,  some  five  miles 
above  Slocum  Hollow,  and  failed.  After  this  route  was 
found  to  be  impracticable,  the  irrepressible  energy  of 
these  men  turned  to  the  Carbondale  placer,  where  the  first 
sled-load  of  stone-coal  from  the  Lackawanna  Valley  left 
its  bed,  by  the  creek  side,  and  was  floated  to  Phila- 
delphia upon  rafts  ;  and  while  its  claimed  attributes  for 
heat,  brought  jeers  from  the  passer  to  its  patrons,  it  wore 
and  won  its  way  into  favor  after  many  struggles,  as  the 
stream,  sometimes  baffled  in  its  upper  waters,  becomes 
serene  and  goes  unwearied  to  the  sea. 

APPEARANCE  OF  THE  VALLEY  IX  1804. 

A  brief  retrospective  view  of  Lackawanna  Valley,  as 
it  appeared  to  the  eye  in  1804,  while  shut  out  from  the 
great  world  almost  as  much  as  the  Icelander  among  his 
glacial  peaks,  will  have  a  Ivcal  interest,  enhanced  by  the 
fact  that  the  reader  is  indebted  for  the  faithfulness  of  the 
picture  to  the  memory  of  the  late  Elder  John  Miller. 

In  searching  for  matt-rial  for  publication,  the  writer 
visited  the  elder  in  May,  18f>G.  lie  was  found  alone  in 
the  plowed  field  planting  corn,  dropping  the  seed  from 
a  huge,  leather  bag,  made  from  a  boot-leg,  hung  by  his 
bide  ;  and  although  he  then  was  eifjlity-one  years  of  age, 


LACKAWANXA    VALLEY.  301 

his  extraordinary  powers  of  vitality  enabled  him  to  fill 
the  farmer's  place  as  ably  as  one  forty  years  his  junior. 
Leaning  his  right  arm  upon  his  hoe,  and  successively 
raising  handfuls  of  corn,  to  be  dropped  again  in  the  bag 
through  his  fingers,  he  stood  affixed  for  two  long  hours, 
describing  the  appearance  of  the  country  as  he  saw  it  sixty- 
four  years  before,  interwoven  with  the  remembrance  of 
lively  gossip  and  anecdote.  It  was  done  with  that  sober 
good  sense  and  cheerful  temper  that  always  gave  his  con- 
versation a  charm  suited  to  every  taste,  circle,  and  place. 
The  first  house  standing  near  the  confluence  of  the 
Lackawanna  with  the  Susquehanna,  at  this  period  (1804), 
was  that  of  Ishmael  Bennett,  a  blacksmith.  He  was  a 
great  Indian  fighter  and  hater,  having  witnessed  many  of 
the  cruelties  practiced  by  them  after  the  battle  across  the 
river.  A  huge  elm-tree,  seen  a  little  east  of  the  railroad 
depot  at  Pittston,  indicates  the  original  location  of  his 
dwelling.  On  the  farm,  now  known  as  Barnum's,  a  little 
pretension  in  the  potash  and  agricultural  line  was  made 
by  James  Brown.  Captain  Isaac  Wilson,  who  married  a 
daughter  of  John  Phillips,  owned  a  narrow  patch  of  land 
immediately  above.  Just  as  the  road,  skirting  along  the 
western  border  of  the  Lackawanna,  below  Old  Forge, 
emerges  from  the  strip  of  wood  into  the  sandy  plain, 
stood  the  residence  of  that  old  sunburnt  veteran,  Ebenezer 
Marcy.  In  1778,  he  was  engaged  in  the  Indian  battle, 
and  his  wife  was  among  the  fugitives  who  fled  from 
Wyoming  on  the  evening  of  the  memorable  3d  of  July  of 
this  year.  The  tourist,  as  he  passes  down  the  valley, 
can  not  fail  to  observe,  as  he  passes  over  the  Lackawanna 
bridge,  below  the  rapids,  a  deep,  ragged,  narrow  passage 
cut  through  a  rock,  that  here  turns  aside  the  waters  of  the 
stream  as  they  come  fretting  and  chafing  over  the  rocky 
bed,  like  an  ill-curbed  colt.  This  channel,  dug  out  as 
early  as  1774  for  mill  purposes,  now  conveyed  to  the  forge 
below  motive  power  from  the  stream  above.  At  this 
forge,  standing  a  little  below  the  bridge  spoken  of,  Dr. 


302  HISTORY    OF   THE 

Wm.  Hooker  Smith  and  James  Sutton  lived  and  manu- 
factured iron.  Opposite  this  point  lay  the  farm  since 
known  as  Drake's,  on  which  a  cabin  had  been  fashioned 
by  Hermans,  who  claimed  the  land,  while  on  the  adjoining 
clearing  there  lived  Deodat  Smith,  father  of  the  late  Thos. 
Smith,  Esq.,  of  Abington. 

An  old  gentleman  named  Cornelius  Atherton  resided  at 
Keys  or  Reiser's  Creek.1  He  was  a  blacksmith  by  trade  ; 
and  it  is  claimed  that  the  first  clothiefs  sJiears  in  the 
United  States  were  made  by  him  in  Connecticut.  His 
son  Jabez  was  shot  in  the  Indian  battle  at  Wyoming,  the 
bullet  passing  through  the  femur,  or  thigh-bone,  without 
a  fracture.  One  of  those  tragic  episodes  so  frequent  in 
the  earlier  history  of  Wyoming  was  enacted  upon  this 
creek,  at  the  present  location  of  Taylorsville.  The  day 
after  the  Wyoming  massacre,  the  whites  remaining  un- 
harmed fled  from  the  plains  of  Wyoming  by  every  path 
leading  from  it.  To  escape  the  knife  or  the  merciless  ax, 
homes  were  hurriedly  left,  and  all  fled  toward  the  Dela- 
ware for  safety.  A  party  of  six  persons,  two  men,  their 
wives  and  children,  were  thus  urging  their  single  yoke  of 
oxen  over  this  route,  when  they  entered  the  glen  with 
comparatively  little  apprehension,  as  the  savages  were 
supposed  to  be  present  at  their  bloody  carnival  below. 
Hardly  had  a  draught  been  taken  from  the  creek  before 
the  whoop  and  uplifted  tomahawk  announced  the  presence 
of  the  savages  as  they  sprang  from  the  ambuscade.  Before 
the  whites  could  raise  their  guns  upon  their  foes,  and 
defend  their  families  or  themselves,  one  man  fell  by  the 
dash  of  the  tomahawk,  while  the  other  darted  away  in 
the  forest  with  such  rapidity,  as  to  draw  away  entirely 
from  the  rest  of  tin?  party  the  notice  of  the  pursuing 
Indians.  It  was  now  a  moment  big  with  peril.  To  flee 
at  once  was  the  only  hope  to  escape  captivity,  or  perhaps 
a  lingering,  barbarous  death.  Each  mother  gathered  a 

1  This  crock  took  its  name  from  Timothy  Koye,  once  living  here,  who  was  killed 
by  the  Indians  in  1778. 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  303 

child  to  her  bosom,  and  instinctively  hurried  away  in  the 
deep,  dark  thicket  of  willows  bordering  this  stream,  as  it 
flowed  along  that  swampy  lowland.  From  the  knife, 
already  gleaming  and  tried  upon  those  they  had  loved  so 
long,  these  bold  women,  with  their  nursing  babes,  suc- 
cessfully escaped.  Although  the  stern  wilderness  frowned 
before  them,  and  their  assailants  were  prowling  in  their 
rear,  they  left  their  hiding-place  at  night ;  and,  creeping 
from  bush  to  bush  along  the  Lackawanna,  continued 
their  journey  over  Cobb  Mountain  toward  the  settle- 
ments upon  the  Delaware.  They  subsisted  upon  roots 
and  berries — the  manna  of  the  wilderness — and  at  night 
huddling  together  under  some  friendly  tree,  found  wild- 
dreaming  repose. 

After  passing  every  danger  and  enduring  every  hard- 
ship, heart-heavy,  stripped,  and  starved,  yet  trusting  in 
God,  they  arrived  at  the  village  of  Stroudsburg  in  safety. 

The  Indians,  as  they  returned  from  the  chase,  with  the 
warm  and  dripping  scalp  in  their  hands,  finding  their 
victims  beyond  reach,  cut  out  the  lolling  tongue  of  one  of 
the  oxen  for  a  roast,  leaving  the  other  undisturbed,  in 
which  condition  they  were  found  the  next  day  by  some 
of  the  escaping  settlers. 

Along  the  path  from  this  creek  to  Providence  the  woods 
retained  their  native  aspect  until  the  highland  farm,  now 
known  as  "Uncle  Joe  Griffin's,"  came  in  view.  Upon 
this  plateau,  where  the  rich  outlines  of  the  Indian  region 
rose  up  in  every  form  of  beauty,  stood  a  log-cabin,  with 
its  roof  running  to  the  very  ground — better  to  withstand 
the  storms  of  winter.  Reuben  Taylor  lived  here  at  this 
time. 

Mr.  Lafronse  had  a  possession  right  immediately  above 
Taylor's,  while  Joseph  Fellows,  Sen.,  who  came  to  the 
valley  in  1796,  had  made  a  permanent  residence  on  the 
slope  of  the  hill,  near  the  present  family  mansion  of  Turvy 
Fellows,  Esq.  Subsequently  he  received  a  commission 
as  a  justice  of  the  peace,  an  office  which  he  filled  with 


304  HISTORY   OF   THE 

ability  and  great  satisfaction.  His  nearest  neighbor  up 
the  valley  was  Goodrich. 

Hyde  Park,  as  a  village,  had  no  existence,  and  but  a 
single  cleared  acre,  half-hidden  in  the  green  park  on  all 
sides  surrounding  it,  was  inhabited.  Upon  the  site  of  the 
residence  of  Hon.  Wm.  Merrifield,  stood,  in  1804,  the 
unhewn-log  habitation  of  Elder  Wm.  Bishop,  who,  as 
early  as  1795,  officiated  as  the  first  stationed  minister  in 
Providence. 

With  the  exception  of  the  "Indian  clearing,"  and  a 
little  additional  chopping  around  it,  the  central  portion  of 
Capoose  Meadow,  or  Tripp's  Flats,  was  covered  with 
tall  white  pines.  The  road  lay  along  the  brow  of  the  hill 
for  nearly  half  a  mile  from  the  house  of  Bishop,  when  it 
reached  the  two-roomed  log-tavern  of  Stephen  Tripp,  who 
at  this  time  had  a  large  distillery  operating  here. 

Tripp  was  a  man  of  singular  evenness  of  temper.  He 
never  became  boisterous  or  belligerent.  The  nearest 
approach  to  it  occurred  here  at  his  tavern.  A  stranger 
stopping  at  his  house,  finding  the  landlord  agreeable  and 
full  of  social  qualities,  ventured  to  ask  his  name.  He 
was  told  it  was  Tripp.  "Trip,  Trip,  is  it?"  said  the 
stranger,  pleased  with  the  reply;  "that  is  a  capital, 
capital  name  I  know,  for  I  have  a  dog  by  that  name — and 
4  Trip '  is  a  good  dog  !" 

Entering  a  small,  dark  cabin,  near  where  now  lives  Ira 
Tripp,  Esq.,  there  sat  a  short,  gray-headed  man,  more 
cheerful  and  communicative  than  his  associates  of  the  day, 
whose  earliest  life  was  full  of  incident  and  hardships,  and 
who  emigrated  from  Rhode  Island  at  the  time  of  the  for- 
mation of  Lu/erne  County,  in  1786.  This  was  the  father 
of  Stephen. 

About  midway  between  this  point  and  the  Lackawanna 
River,  a  little  to  the  northeast  of  the  "Diamond  mines," 
a  small  tract  of  rich  land  had  been  purchased  by  Lewis 
Jones  from  Wm.  Tripp  and  John  Gifford— a  son-in-law 
of  Isaac  Tripp — who  lived  here  at  this  time.  Jones's  farm 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  305 

included  that  intervale  where  yet  lies  the  debris  of  an 
old  still-house.  John  Staples  occupied  the  Widow 
Griffin  farm — adjacent  to  that  of  Alderman  Griffin — 
which  soon  after  passed  into  the  hands  of  Mathias  Hol- 
lenback. 

The  Yon  Storch  property,  originally  passing  from  the 
proprietors  of  the  town  of  Capoose  to  Dean,  and  from  him 
to  Nathan  Roberts,  for  a  barrel  of  whisky,  came  into  the 
hands  of  H.  C.  L.  Von  Storch  in  the  spring  of  1807, 
before  coal  lands  had  a  name  or  a  value  in  the  valley.  A 
strip  of  pines  lay  between  the  clearing  of  Yon  Storch  and 
the  cabin  of  Enock  Holmes,  standing  on  the  site  of  the 
village  of  Providence.  Where  now  stands  the  cottage  of 
Daniel  Silkman,  lived  Henry  Waderman,  who,  as  late  as 
1810,  when  the  census  was  first  taken  in  the  valley  by 
the  Hon.  Charles  Miner — a  gentleman  to  whom  all  ac- 
corded the  possession  in  a  high  degree  of  those  frank, 
pleasing,  and  intellectual  qualities,  which  seldom  fail  to 
secure  the  regard  of  every  one — occupied  the  only  dwell- 
ing he  found  above  Providence.  Mr.  Miner  recollected 
this  more  distinctly  from  the  fact  of  staying  over  night 
with  Waderman,  whom  he  found  cheerful,  sociable,  and 
fond  of  relating  stories  of  Bonaparte. 

Upon  the  flats,  now  known  as  the  Rockwell  farm,  dwelt 
James  Bagley,  whose  porchless  abode  gave  welcome 
shelter  to  children,  cats,  and  dogs.  Bagley' s  ford  way 
crossed  the  Lacka wanna,  near  his  dwelling. 

At  the  mouth  of  Leggett's  Creek,  Selah  Mead  cultivated 
the  narrow  intervale,  while  Mr.  Hutchins  occupied  a 
patch  of  land  rising  up  from  the  brook,  known  now  as  the 
McDaniels'  farm.  The  adjacent  clearing,  thick  with 
stumps,  marked  the  well-chosen  location  of  Ephraim 
Stevens,  who,  bending  and  white  with  the  years  of  almost 
a  century,  passed  away  a  short  time  since,  leaving  his 
estate  to  his  son  Samuel,  subsequently  deceased. 

Half  a  mile  beyond,  on  the  farm  so  long  rendered  pro- 
ductive by  Colonel  Moses  Yaughn,  one  of  the  worthy 
20 


306  HISTOUY    OF   THE 

descendants  of  Captain  John  Vaughn,  lived  John  Tripp. 
The  orchard  spread  over  the  meadow  crossed  by  the 
Delaware  and  Hudson  Railroad,  on  the  western  bank  of 
the  Lackawanna,  planted  by  Captain  Vaughn,  denotes  the 
place  where  he  and  his  sons  long  drew  nurture  from  the 
soil.  Upon  the  Decker  farm  lived  "Win.  McDaniels,  whose 
sluggish  ideas  of  agriculture  governed  each  successive 
inheritance  until  the  property  came  into  possession  of 
Messrs.  Pancost  and  Price,  two  Philadelphia  gentlemen 
of  education  and  fortune. 

The  village  of  Price,  peopled  by  hardy  and  industrious 
Germans,  stands  upon  a  portion  of  the  Decker  farm.  The 
first  clearing  made  in  Blakeley  turned  to  practical  account, 
was  that  of  Timothy  Stevens,  who,  about  the  close  of  the 
Revolution,  began  a  chopping  on  the  farm  known  as  the 
Mott  farm,  where  he  "  logged-off "  land  for  a  corn  and 
potato  patch,  which  yielded  abundance  to  the  wants  of 
his  family. 

Nicholas  Leuchens,  the  erratic  genius  before  mentioned, 
lived  at  the  present  sire  of  Peckville.  Along  the  forests 
of  the  Lackawanna,  above  Leuchens,  the  ax  had  rung, 
only  to  mark  the  course  of  the  trapper  or  trader  coming 
from  Pleasant  Mount,  and  but  a  single  hut  or  cabin  stood 
between.  Blakeley,  Carbondale,  Rushdale,  Archbald, 
and  Jessup,  had  no  impulse  even  toward  a  settlement, 
nor  was  there  a  township  formed  in  the  valley  north  of 
Providence;  a  "chopping,"  with  the  fallen  pines  di- 
vested of  their  lesser  limbs  by  fire,  edged  its  way  into 
the  green  woods,  where  in  latter  years  the  "Meredith 
Cottage,"  made  rural  and  attractive  by  warm  hospitality, 
stood  and  still  stands,  to  gladden  the  wayside. 

Having  now  reached  the  extreme  point  of  the  valley, 
on  the  west  side  of  the  Lackawanna,  as  far  as  settled  in 
1804,  a  glance  of  the  eastern  border,  less  sought  after  for 
a  dwelling-place  or  heritage  at  this  time,  will  be  as  briefly 
given.  There,  are  yet  a  few  remaining  who  can  bear  tes- 
timony to  the  rugged,  narrow  path  along  the  stream. 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  307 

overhung  with  interlocking  trees,  which  led  its  way  from 
Ragged  Island  to  Capoose,  with  only  here  and  there  a 
break,  in  the  woodland  for  the  occasional  occupant.  Upon 
the  farm  known  as  the  Dolph  farm,  in  Oly pliant,  lived 
Moses  Dolph,  father  of  Alexander  and  grandfather  to 
the  present  owner,  Edward  Dolph  ;  immediately  below, 
Samuel  Ferris,  father  of  Samuel,  William,  and  John,  won 
by  hard  toil  a  resting-place  for  his  young  family.  From 
the  lands  of  Ferris  it  was  nothing  but  woods,  broken 
only  within  a  single  mile  by  the  blackened  fallow  of 
John  Secor,  whose  cabin,  built  from  logs  of  great  strength 
and  size,  served  to  dispel  all  fears  inspired  by  wolves 
never  slumbering  about  the  clearing  after  nightfall.  Be- 
tween Secor' s  and  Dunmore,  two  miles  away,  two  rights 
had  been  improved  respectively  by  Charles^  Dolph  and 
Levi  Depuy. 

The  Corners  (Dunmore)  had  two  hocuses  only— the 
tavern  of  Widow  Alsworth  and  the  residence  of  David 
Brown.  Between  this  point  and  Slocum  Hollow,  a  log- 
house  of  John  Carey' s,  with  its  huge,  stone  chimney  and 
mud-chinked  sides,  had  risen  from  the  clearing,  and  the 
bevy  of  children  issuing  from  the  door  to  wonder  at  the 
occasional  passer,  or  building  dams  of  mud  across  the 
stream  running  at  the  door,  made  up  the  daily  picture  of 
domestic  life  at  this  solitary  habitation  between  these  two 
named  places. 

At  Griffin's  Corners,  there  lived  an  old  man  named 
Atwater,  while  on  the  Dings  or  Whaling  property  (now 
Green  Ridge,  where  the  Hon.  George  Sanderson  has 
brought  a  town  into  being),  stood  by  the  brook-side  the 
rude  yet  hospitable  dwelling  of  Conrad  Lutz,  occupied 
by  his  son  John.  The  old  Connecticut  road,  familiar  to 
the  Wyoming  pioneers,  following  the  Indian  trail,  came 
into  Capoose  Meadow,  and  crossed  the  Lackawanna  at 
Lutz's  fordway.  This  fording-place,  deriving  its  name 
from  Mr.  Lutz,  was  traversed  from  1769  until  1826.  Tall 
pines,  alienated  from  Indian  tenure,  crowded  upon  the 


308  HISTORY   OF   THE 

road  leading  to  Slocum  Hollow,  where  Ebenezer  and 
Benjamin  Slocum,  with  their  less  than  a  dozen  employees, 
enumerated  the  entire  white  inhabitants  of  this  tranquil 
and  independent  settlement. 

James  Abbott,  whose  iron  energy  had  animated  the 
glen  of  Roaring  Brook,  resided  on  the  bank  of  Stafford 
Meadow  Creek.  Some  two  miles  below  Slocum  Hollow, 
a  tract  of  land  improved  as  early  as  1776,  by  Comer 
Philips,  was  tenanted  jointly  by  David  Dewee  and  David 
David.  The  latter  met  with  a  sudden  death  a  year  or 
two  later.  Engaged  at  the  break  of  day  in  prying  up  a 
rock  for  a  hearth-stone,  he  was  mistaken  by  Dewee,  in 
search  of  game,  for  a  beast  of  prey,  and  shot  dead  upon 
the  spot.  His  widow  subsequently  married  Mr.  Abbott. 

John  Scott,  father  of  the  great  hunter  Elias,  lived  upon 
the  farm  lying  farthest  down  in  the  township  of  Provi- 
dence. His  nearest  neighbor  was  Joseph  Knapp,  a  brave 
old  revolutionary  soldier,  spurning  alike  title  or  preten- 
sion. At  the  surrender  of  Burgoyne  he  received  a  wound 
long  incapacitating  him  from  active  service.  After  the 
declaration  of  peace  he  resumed  farming  in  Columbia 
County,  £s"ew  York,  until  1790,  when  he  emigrated  to  the 
valley  and  settled  in  the  "gore."  * 

His  son  Zephaniah,  attaining  eighty  years,  yet  lives 
among  us.  Much  of  his  early  life  was  spent  in  hunting 
and  trapping  various  animals  inhabiting  the  valley  over 
half  a  century  ago.  Sometimes  during  the  autumn  months 
he  was  out  alone  for  weeks,  engaged  in  hunting,  subsisting 
on  the  trophies  of  his  gun,  and  finding  on  friendly  leaves 
and  boughs  his  only  birouac.  He  has  kept  a  curious 
record  of  the  number  of  bears  and  other  wild  animals  he 
killed  upon  the  Lackawanna  ;  of  the  time  and  manner  of 
their  capture,  with  their  respective  weight,  in  a  work 
of  over  one  hundred  folio  pages  ;  a  work  probably 

1  The  gore  was  a  narrow  strip  of  land,  lying  between  Pittston  and  Provklenre. 
It  is  now  Lackawanna  Township,  set  off  as  an  electoral  di.strict,  Feb.  2o,  1795; 
into  a  township  at  the  November  sessions,  18:58. 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  309 

unmatched  in  novelty  and  interest  by  any  manuscript  of 
the  kind  found  in  the  country.  He  has  given  it  the  in- 
imitable title  of  "  The  Leather  SUrt." 

This  enumeration,  embracing  no  particular  creed  nor 
politics,  comprised  the  entire  inhabitants  of  the  valley 
four  and  sixty  years  ago.'  To  many  who  may  peruse  these 
pages  the  foregoing  particulars  may  seem  out  of  place, 
but  to  those  who  visit  the  Lackawanna  Yalley,  or  make 
it  their  home,  it  will  not  be  amiss  to  thus  catch  a  retro- 
spective glance  of  the  days  gone  by,  so  as  better  to 
contemplate  the  changes  years  have  wrought,  and  judge 
from  the  past  how  rapid  and  marvelous  will  be  the  pros- 
perity of  the  future.  Six  years  later  the  census  was 
taken  by  the  Hon.  Charles  Miner.  Within  the  Lackawan- 
nian  district  existed  but  two  townships,  Pittston  and 
Providence,  the  first  having  a  population  of  694,  the  last 
589,  or  a  total  population  of  1,283  for  the  entire  valley  in 
1804.  Abington  had  an  inhabitancy  of  511. 

The  same  territory,  divided  and  sub-divided  into  cities, 
townships,  and  boroughs,  will  furnish  in  1870,  accord- 
ing to  the  same  ratio  of  increase,  a  population  of  one 
hundred  thousand.  Diffused  along  its  living  border,  it 
falls  to-day  little  short  of  eighty  thousand,  and  a  more 
enterprising,  intelligent  community,  a  more  thrifty  and 
successful  people,  remarkable  alike  for  their  love  of 
liberty  and  their  attachments  to  their  country,  can  no- 
where be  found. 

The  thrift  everywhere  diffused  along  the  intervale,  no 
longer  hid  in  its  native  fastnesses,  has  kept  pace  with  the 
steady  hum  of  its  population.  It  is  in  fact  impossible  to 
contemplate  the  unvaried  progress  of  the  Lackawanna 
Valley  for  the  last  thirty  years  without  astonishment  and 
pride.  It  has  been  a  progress  at  once  so  rapid,  so  liberal, 
so  vast  and  comprehensive  in  its  character,  as  to  exhibit 
alike  the  importance  of  the  valley,  and  the  sagacity  of 
those  to  whom  its  development  has  been  intrusted.  Buried 
deep  in  the  forest  of  northeastern  Pennsylvania,  as  it  has 


310  HISTORY    OF    THE 

been  within  a  few  years,  walled  in  from  the  great  world 
by  natural  mountain  barriers,  like  the  Northmen  among 
their  glimmering  crags,  with  no  outlet  to  the  east  or  the 
west,  but  for  the  slow  coach,  swinging  along  at  the  rate 
of  four  miles  an  hour  behind  the  jaded  stage-horse,  with 
no  incitement  but  its  slumbering  wealth,  it  has  risen  like 
a  man  awakened  from  his  slumbers,  strong,  refreshed, 
invigorated,  until  it  has  become  one  of  the  most  com- 
mercial and  prosperous  valleys  in  the  State. 

FORMATION  OF  TOWNSHIPS  UNDER  PENNSYLVANIA   JURIS- 
DICTION :    PRIMITIVE  MINISTERS. 

Pittston  was  formed  in  1790. 
Providence  was  formed,  August,  1792. 
Abington  was  formed,  August,  1806. 
Greenfield  was  formed,  January,  181 6. 
Covington  was  formed,  January,  1818. 
Blakeley  was  formed,  April,  1818. 
Carbondale  was  formed,  April,  1831. 
Jefferson  was  formed,   April,  1836. 
Lackawanna  was  formed,  November,  1838. 
Bcnton  was  formed  1838. 
Newton  was  formed  1844. 
Madison  was  formed  1845. 
Fell  was  formed  1845. 
Scott  was  formed  1846. 

The  same  territory,  divided  into  lots  of  300  acres  each, 
extending  back  two  and  a  half  miles,  was  covered  by 
two  towns,  while  under  Connecticut  jurisdiction!,  viz.  : 
Pittston  and  Providence.  Three  hundred  acres  of  land 
were  appropriated  or  reserved  in  either  of  these  original 
towns  for  the  use  of  i\\&  first  minister  in  fee,  before  other 
lots  were  offered  to  the  settler.  Before  the  ministerial 
occupancy  of  these  reservations,  the  adjoining  town  of 
Wilkes  Barre  with  that  of  Kingston,  prospered  under 
the  spiritual  pleadings  of  the  Rev.  Jacob  Johnson,  a 
Presbyterian  minister,  for  whom  a  house  was  built  by 
the  colony  in  1772,  and  whose  salary  this  year  was  fixed 
at  sixty  pounds  Connecticut  currency. l 

1  Westmoreland  Records. 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  311 

After  the  annihilation  of  the  Connecticut  claim  in  1782, 
by  the  court  at  Trenton,  the  commissioners  allowed 
"The  Rev.  Mr.  Johnson  to  have  the  full  use  of  all 
the  grounds  he  Tilled  for  two  years,  ending  the  first  of 
May,  1785."  1  He  refused  the  kindness  of  the  favor  in  a 
spirit  less  chafing  than  biblical,  as  evinced  by  the  fol- 
lowing letter*  of 

''JACOB  JOHNSON  To  the  Com18  of  the  Pennsylvania  Land- 
owners, &c. :  Gentlemen, 

I  thank  you  for  your  distinguished  Favor  shewed  to  me 
the  widows,  &c.,  in  a  proposal  of  Indulgence,  Permitting 
us  to  reside  in  our  present  Possessions  and  Improvements 
for  the  present  &  succeeding  Year.  Altho  I  cannot  Con- 
sistly  accept  the  offer,  having  Chosen  a  Comte  for  that 
purpose,  who  are  not  disposed  to  accept  of  or  Comply 
with  your  proposals.  However,  I  will  for  myself  (as  an 
Individual)  make  you  a  proposal  agreable  to  that  Royal 
President,  Sam1  9th,  16th,  &  19th  Chapter,  if  that  dont  suit 
you  and  no  Compromise  can  be  made,  or  Tryal  be  had, 
according  to  the  law  of  the  States,  I  will  say  as  Mephe- 
boseth,  Jonathan's  son  (who  was  lame  on  both  his  feet) 
said  to  King  David,  Sam1 19,  30,  yea  let  him  take  all.  So 
I  say  to  you  Gentlemen  if  there  be  no  resource,  Neither 
by  our  Petition  to  the  Assembly  of  the  State  of  Pennsy- 
vania  or  otherwise,  Let  the  Landholders  take  all.  I  have 
only  this  to  add  for  my  Consolation  and  you  Gentlemen' s 
serious  Consideration,  Viz  :  that  however  the  Cause  may 
be  determined  for  or  against  me  (in  this  present  uncertain 
State  of  things,)  there  is  an  Inheritance  in  the  Heavens, 
sure  &  Certain  that  fadeth  riot  a  way  reserved  for  me,  and 
all  that  love  the  Saviour  Jesus  Christ' s  appearing. 

I  am  Gentlemen,  with  all  due  Respect,  &  good  Will 

your  Most  Ob1  Humble  Serv*, 
JACOB  JOHNSON. 

Wiotning,  Ap1  24th,  1783. 

To  the  Gentlemen  Comte,  &c. 

zPa.  Arch.,  1783-1786,  p.  32.  3lbid.,  pp.  34,  35. 


012  HISTORY    OF    THE 

N.  B.  it  is  my  Serious  Opinion  if  we  proceed  to  a  Com- 
promise according  to  the  Will  of  heaven  that  the  lands 
(as  to  the  Right  of  soil)  be  equally  divided  between  the 
two  Parties  Claiming,  and  I  am  fully  Satisfied  this  Opinion 
of  mine  may  be  proved  even  to  a  demonstration  out  of 
the  Sacred  Oracles.  I  would  wish  you  Gentlemen  would 
turn  your  thoughts  and  enquiries  to  those  3  Chapters 
above  refered  to  and  see  if  my  Opinion  is  not  well 
Grounded  &  if  so,  I  doiibt  not  but  we  Can  Compromise 
in  love  and  Peace— and  save  the  Cost  and  Trouble  of  a 
TryalatLaw." 

The  doctrines  of  Methodism  were  occasionally  ex- 
pounded to  the  people  of  Pittston  and  Providence  in 
1790 ;  in  1794  an  Englishman  named  William  Bishop,  a 
fervid  Baptist  preacher,  kindled  his  fire  on  the  parsonage 
lot  in  Providence.  This  lot  lay  on  the  east  side  of  Hyde 
Park,  and  extended  over  the  marsh  or  pond  which  a  few 
years  since  gave  to  the  interior  of  Scranton  such  a  pisca- 
tory appearance.  The  principal  hotels  and  churches,  as 
well  as  the  greater  portion  of  Scranton,  stand  upon  these 
ancient  church  lands. 

On  the  bluff,  upheaved  from  the  Lackawanna,  whose 
waters  so  gracefully  bend  around  its  base,  the  log-house 
and  church  of  Elder  Bishop,  combined  in  one,  emerged 
from  the  forest.  It  was  a  rude,  paintless  affair.  No  bell, 
steeple,  pulpit,  nor  pews,  marked  it  as  a  house  of  worship  ; 
four  plain  sides,  chinked  with  wood  held  by  adhesive 
mud,  formed  a  room  where  the  backwoodsmen  gathered 
in  a  spirit  of  real  piety,  sincerity,  and  an  absence  of 
display  impossible  to  iind  to-day  in  the  more  costly  and 
imposing  sanctuaries  around  us. 

The  habits  of  the  assemblage  were  in  keeping  with  the 
character  of  the  humble  edifice.  Women  wore  dresses 
made  from  flax  and  woolen,  fitting  them  so  closely  and 
straight  as  a  bean-pole.  These  were  sometimes  plain  from 
the  loom,  but  generally  colored  and  striped  with  a 
domestic  dye,  giving  to  the  woolen  fabric  every  variety 


LACKA.WANNA    VALLEY.  313 

of  finish  and  shade.  Instead  of  the  negative  shoe  worn 
nowadays,  the  old-fashioned  ones  then  in  use  furnished 
to  the  wearer  one  of  the  essentials  to  long  life  and  health 
— a  generous  warmth. 

The  shadowy  and  often  senseless  duties  of  the  milliner 
were  but  slightly  appreciated  here  at  that  time,  for  one 
instance  is  related  to  the  writer  of  a  woman  whose  "bon- 
net, cut  from  pasteboard  and  trimmed  as  plainly  as  a 
pumpkin,  was  worn  summer  and  winter  for  the  long 
period  of  twenty-two  years,  with  no  other  change  nor 
"doing  up"  than  the  addition  of  a  single  new  ribbon  or 
string !  Appalling  and  incredible  as  may  appear  the  fact 
to  the  girl  or  the  matron  of  the  present  time,  the  person 
yet  lives  in  the  valley  who  remembers  this  pioiis  arid 
economical  mother  well.  The  prudent  wife  and  mother 
who  understood  the  necessity  of  supplying  the  wants  of 
the  family  from  the  scanty  means  within  her  reach,  so 
united  industry  with  economy  as  to  exhibit  in  the  most 
favorable  light  the  qualities  of  the  New  England  women. 

Broadcloth  coats  were  never  seen  unless  brought  from 
Connecticut.  Their  place  was  supplied  by  the  rough, 
warm,  honest  homespun,  or  more  frequently  by  a  suit  of 
bear,  or  the  coveted  deer  skin.  Hats  and  caps  ingeniously 
constructed  from  the  skin  of  wild  animals  found  in  every 
thicket,  were  universally  worn  in  winter,  while  in  sum- 
mer the  straw  hat,  braided  from  the  well-thrashed  rye, 
gave  comfort  and  dignity  to  the  wearer. 

Men  and  boys  went  barefooted  until  they  reached  the 
place  of  meeting,  carrying  their  shoes  in  their  hands, 
putting  them  on  during  preaching,  and  after  meeting 
would  walk  home,  sometimes  many  miles,  upon  the  bare 
feet,  and  the  shoes  were  returned  in  the  same  manner 
in  which  they  had  been  brought.  Many  of  the  settlers, 
pressed  by  the  needs  of  the  household,  did  not  enjoy  the 
luxury  even  of  carrying  shoes. 

The  women  were  always  seated  upon  one  side  of  the 
house,  the  men  upon  the  other.  The  habit  of  the  male 


HISTORY   OF   THE 

and  female  portion  of  the  community  being  seated  pro- 
miscuously in  a  country  school  or  meeting-house  was  in- 
dulged in  here  only  within  the  last  forty  years. 

PROPRIETORS'  SCHOOL-FUND  AND  PRIMITIVE  SCHOOLS. 

The  fund  in  the  township  of  Providence,  known  as  the 
"Proprietors'  School-Fund,"  came  from  a  provision  full 
of  forethought  and  wisdom.  The  original  proprietors  of 
the  seventeen  towns  certified  to  Connecticut  settlers  in 
Westmoreland,  in  setting  aside  certain  lots  for  religious 
and  literary  purposes,  inaugurated  a  measure  that  speaks 
for  itself.  Nearly  2,000  acres  were  thus  reserved  by  the 
Yankees  in  the  town  of  Providence. 

The  commissioners  appointed  under  the  act  passed  in 
April,  1799,  offering  compensation  to  Pennsylvania  claim- 
ants, issued  certificates  or  patents  for  the  land  from  the 
State  to  the  committees  for  the  said  lots  in  trust  for  the 
use  of  the  proprietors  of  said  town  or  township,  and  the 
annual  committee  had  from  time  to  time  sold  or  leased 
for  a  term  of  years  a  great  part  of  such  lots,  reserving  the 
remainder  for  the  proprietors'  use. 

As  the  committees,  however,  were  supposed  by  many  to 
be  invested  with  little  or  no  legal  powers,  the  sales  and 
leases  made  by  them  were  so  little  regarded,  that  some 
debts  and  rents,  due  the  original  Yankee  proprietors,  are 
yet  remaining  unpaid. 

A  portion  of  the  land  thus  appropriated  by  the  old 
Susquehanna  Company  for  school  purposes,  was  sold  the 
17th  of  September,  1795,  to  William  Bishop,  by  Constant 
Searles,  James  Abbott,  and  Daniel  Taylor,  who  acted  for 
the  township. 

With  a  view  of  confirming  such  contracts  and  sales, 
which  at  the  time  were  deemed  advantageous  for  the 
school  fund,  the  proprietors  of  the  township  obtained  an 
act  of  incorporation  from  the  Legislature  during  its  session 
of  1835,  similiar  in  its  character  to  that  obtained  in  1831 


LACK  AW  ANN  A   VALLEY.  315 

by  the  townships  of  Wilkes  Barre,  Hanover,  and  Ply- 
mouth, clothing  the  trustees  of  the  township  with  all  the 
privileges  and  franchises  of  corporations.  John  Dings, 
Samuel  De  Puy,  William  Merrifield,  Joshua  Griffin,  and 
Nathanial  Cottrill  were  vested  with  the  authority  of  trus- 
tees under  this  act,  until  after  the  annual  election. 

Although  this  act  did  not  affect  any  sales  previously 
made  by  individuals  acting  for  the  township,  and  conse- 
quently failed  to  reach  and  recover  lands  forever  lost  to 
it,  yet  it  enabled  the  proprietors  who  were  subsequently 
elected  by  the  taxable  inhabitants  of  the  district,  to  sell 
the  remainder  of  this  land,  lying  in  the  vicinity  of  Hyde 
Park,  for  the  sum  of  $3,300,  which  being  secured  by  bond 
and  mortgage  upon  the  property,  now  furnishes  by  its 
yearly  interest  the  "School  Fund,"  a  fund  which  con- 
tributes so  justly  toward  the  support  and  success  of  what 
is  considered  so  essential  to  the  promotion  of  national 
welfare — common  schools. 

The  first  house  built  in  the  valley  with  especial  reference 
only  to  schools  was  erected  in  1818,  upon  a  plot  of  land 
now  within  the  limits  of  Providence  village.  The  build- 
ing was  nine  by  twelve,  without  paint,  steeple,  or  bell,  yet 
no  college  hall  now  offers  more  willing  culture  to  the 
young  than  did  this  plain  edifice  beneath  the  murmuring 
pines,  open  its  doors  to  the  mischievous  urchins  of  the 
valley  just  half  a  century  ago. 

In  reviewing  the  history  of  the  Yankee  settlements  in 
Westmoreland,  much  of  the  thrift  and  sprightliness  of 
the  New  England  character  can  be  traced  in  the  element- 
ary education  imparted  to  them  from  the  cabin  school- 
house  along  the  forest.  Many  of  the  pioneers  were  men 
of  deep  religious  sentiment  and  principle,  and  after  their 
families  had  been  sheltered  from  the  storms  and  the  intru- 
sion of  the  inmates  of  the  wigwam,  they  made  provisions 
for  the  school-house. 

The  school  records  of  the  various  townships  in  the 
valley,  present  no  striking  peculiarity,  but  as  far  as  any 


316  HISTORY    OF    THE 

judgment  can  be  formed  from  the  contents  and  character 
of  the  former  records,  both  of  school  and  society,  it  leads 
unavoidably  to  the  conclusion  that  there  has  been  no 
relaxation  of  effort  in  the  cause  of  education  since  the 
earlier  settlers  passed  away.  The  standard  which  they 
created  has  not  been  overlooked,  nor  has  the  common 
interest  of  every  citizen  in  the  education  of  the  commu- 
nity been  forgotten.  While  the  district  and  higher  school 
arrangements  in  the  Lacka  wanna  Valley  are  justly  looked 
upon  as  superior — and  some  are  eminently  so — they  would 
suffer  none  to-day  by  a  comparison  with  any  school 
found  within  the  precincts  of  the  oldest  settled  counties 
in  the  State. 

The  schoolmaster  was,  at  an  early  period,  an  object  of 
terror  to  school-children,  and  of  vast  importance  in  a 
a  small  neighborhood  where  he  "  boarded  around."  The 
respected  parson,  frequent  in  his  visits,  and  beloved  by  all 
for  his  good  wishes  and  kind  words,  only  received  more 
courteous  attention  from  the  farmer  and  his  wife,  than 
did  the  country  schoolmaster — especially  a  new  one, 
whose  reputation  for  "licking"  his  scholars  had  hap- 
pily preceded  him. 

It  \s  well  for  the  timid,  nervous  child,  that  the  barbar- 
ous and  often  surgical  whip  and  ferule,  and  the  triumph- 
ant blows  of  a  master  strong  in  muscle  and  weak  in 
mind,  have  been  exchanged  for  a  more  rational  dis- 
cipline. 

While  the  writer  recollects  his  own  school-boy  days, 
when  he  spent  many  an  idle  hour  in  the  old  school-house 
on  the  hill,  surrounded  on  every  side  but  one  by  sap- 
lings, whose  branches  were  often  applied  to  the  coatless 
backs  of  the  pupils  by  some  itinerating  vender  of  a  b  cs, 
after  the  boys  had  been  seated  upon  a  high,  hard,  hem- 
lock bench,  six  or  eight  hours,  half  frozen  in  winter  and 
quite  boiled  in  summer,  he  can  not  but  rejoice  at  the 
progressive  character  of  government  in  our  common 
schools,  as  well  as  in  their  grade. 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  317 

PATHS     AND     ROADS — JOURNEY     FROM     CONNECTICUT     TO 
PITTSTON   IN   1793. 

The  general  poverty  of  the  earlier  emigrants,  united 
with  the  agitated  condition  of  Wyoming  while  the  Prov- 
ince of  Pennsylvania  acquiesced  in  British  allegiance, 
restrained  the  inhabitants  from  planning  and  working 
roads  needed  for  ordinary  intercourse. 

Mountain  trails  trodden  by  the  red  men  centuries  before, 
and  by  the  whites  seeking  Indian  homes  for  traffic  in  rum 
and  skins,  led  over  the  Moosic  toward  Connecticut  undis- 
turbed until  1769,  when  a  narrow  road  long  called  the 
"  Cobbroad  "  was  opened  from  the  Province  of  New  York 
to  Wyoming.  This  was  the  great  and  only  highway 
entering  the  valley  eastward  from  1769  to  1772.  From 
the  Lackawanna  to  the  Great  Council  Fires  of  the  Six 
Nations  among  the  Lakes,  there  was  no  pathway  other 
than  the  warriors'  trail  connecting  Capoose  with  Con-e- 
wa-wah  (Elmira),  until  1788. 

Among  the  traders  roaming  along  this  wood-wrapped 
avenue  for  traffic  with  its  tribal  masters,  was  the  after- 
ward celebrated  John  Jacob  Astor. 

The  conflicting  claims  to  the  territory  embraced  by 
Wyoming  and  Lackawanna  valleys,  provoked  a  contro- 
versy between  Pennsylvania  and  Connecticut,  long  and 
embittered.  The  claim  of  the  Yankees  being  summarily 
disposed  of  by  the  Trenton  Decree,  Pennsylvania  assumed 
jurisdiction  over  the  valleys  known  as  Westmoreland  no 
longer.  This  obliteration  of  rival  interest,  however  final 
and  prejudged  it  might  have  been,  gave  the  settlers  who 
remained  under  the  new  order  of  things,  leisure  to  repair 
roads  sadly  neglected  during  and  after  the  war. 

The  first  appointment  by  the  justices  in  1788  of  the 
supervisors  of  roads  in  Pittston,  was  John  Philips  and 
Jonathan  Newman  ;  in  Providence,  Henry  Dow  Tripp. 

At  the  September  sessions,  1788,  held  in  Wilkes  Barre, 
a  petition  was  received  from  "Job  Tripp  and  others, 


HISTORY    OF    THE 

praying  that  proper  persons  may  be  appointed  to  lay  out  a 
road  in  the  town  of  Providence.  It  is  ordered  that  Eben- 
ezer  Marcy,  Isaac  Tripp,  Samuel  Miller,  Henry  I).  Tripp, 
Waterman  Baldwin,  and  Jonathan  Newman,  be,  and  they 
are  hereby  appointed  to  lay  out  necessary  roads  in  said 
town,  and  make  return  to  this  court  at  the  next  session." 
At  the  December  session,  1788,  they  reported  that  they 
had  laid  out  roads  through  Pittston,  but  had  surveyed 
none  in  Providence,  so  their  report  was  not  accepted. 

As  the  road  was  essential  to  the  wants  of  the  upper 
township,  the  court  appointed  six  housekeepers  to  sur- 
vey one  fifty  feet  in  width.  This  followed  the  old  road 
leading  up  through  the  Capoose,  constructed  under  Yan- 
kee jurisdiction.  The  next  year,  John  Philips  and  David 
Brown  were  appointed  supervisors  of  highways  in  Pitts- 
ton,  and  Job  Tripp  and  Wm.  Alsworth  in  Providence. 

It  does  not  appear,  however,  that  any  new  roads  were 
laid  out  or  worked  up  to  this  time,  by  any  of  these  super- 
visors— old  roads  only  being  surveyed  and  repaired. 

Job  Tripp,  Constant  Searles,  Jediah  Hoyt,  Daniel  Tay- 
lor, and  James  Abbott,  living  in  Providence,  were  ap- 
pointed in  1791,  to  lay  out  roads  here.  The  present  road 
leading  from  Pittston  to  Providence  was  surveyed  by  them 
on  the  4th  and  5th  of  April,  1791.  This  began  "  on  the 
northeast  side  of  the  Lackawanna  River  in  the  town  of 
Providence,  beginning  at  Lackawanny  River,  neare  where 
Mr.  Leggett  now  lives,"  and  th«ince  through  Providence 
to  the  Pittston  line.  Gabriel  Leggett  then  lived  a  short 
distance  above  the  residence  and  mill  of  the  late  Judson 
Clark,  in  Providence. 

The  Lackawanna  was  yet  bridgeless.  and  only  crossed 
by  fording.  Different  fording-places  took  their  respective 
names  from  the  respective  owners  of  the  land  in  the  imme- 
diate vicinity.  Tims  at  the  Capoose  Works  of  Mr.  Car- 
ter, located  a  mile  from  the  center  of  the  ancient  meadow 
by  that  name — was  Bagley's  ford  ;  at  Providence,  near 
the  mound  of  Capoose,  Lutz's  ford,  etc. 


LACK  AW  ANN  A    VALLEY.  319 

Leggett's  Gap  road  was  laid  out  in  1795.  The  Lacka- 
wanna  Turnpike  Road  Company  was  incorporated  in  1817, 
and  was  the  first  turnpiJce  along  the  valley. 

The  journey  from  Connecticut  to  the  Lacka wanna  in 
1793,  through  a  half-opened  wilderness  of  nearly  two 
hundred  miles,  was  no  easy  matter.  A  day's  drive  with 
the  slow  ox-team  over  a  road  barely  answering  its  pur- 
pose, was  but  eight  or  ten  miles.  At  nightfall,  a  camping 
ground  was  chosen  by  the  road- side  near  some  spring  or 
rivulet,  when  fuel  was  gathered  and  the  bright,  welcome 
blaze  of  the  fire  in  the  woods  lonely  and  deep,  offered 
light  and  company  while  the  supper  was  being  prepared 
and  partaken.  If  from  the  forest  thronged  with  deer, 
none  was  secured  for  the  evening's  meal,  bread  and 
bacon  issued  from  the  chest,  or  corn-meal  from  the  sad- 
dle-bags was  readily  converted  into  "Johnny  cakes." 
Supper 'disposed  of,  and  the  oxen  cared  for  by  a  liberal 
supply  of  browse,  a  few  extra  logs  were  piled  on  the  fire 
as  the  party  crowded  under  the  cover  of  the  wagon  and 
found  repose  amidst  the  silence  of  night. 

Along  the  Lackawack,  whose  sober  waters  no  longer 
rocked  the  Indian' s  craft,  this  road  offered  few  induce- 
ments to  pursue  it  as  it  drifted  toward  Wyoming,  passing 
through  the  "  Lacka wa"  settlement,  and  crossing  Cobb 
Mountain  into  Capoose.  From  the  Paupack  clearings  to  the 
Lackawanna  there  was  in  1793  but  three  dwellings,  at 
Little  Meadows,  Cobb's,  and  Alsworth's  at  Dunmore. 

Several  acres  of  land  overgrown  with  wild  grass  and 
lying  ten  miles  west  of  the  Wallenpaupack  in  a  rich 
intervale,  were  found  inhabited  by  the  red  tribes  when 
the  whites  explored  it  in  1769.  A  small  creek  stretches 
its  languid  line  across  the  meadow  into  a  neighboring 
pond,  where  the  abundance  of  fish  gave  joy  to  the  wig- 
wams on  the  western  edge  of  the  meadow,  from  whence 
the  warriors  came  forth  with  peace-pipe  to  smoke  the 
friendly  welcome.  This  point,  because  of  its  prolific 
growth  of  wild  grass,  was  selected  for  a  residence  by 


320  HISTORY    OF    THE 

Seth  Strong,  in  1770.  It  was  the  first  attempt  to  settle  the 
territory,  now  known  as  Wayne  County.  Mr.  Strong 
lived  here  at  the  time  of  the  Wyoming  massacre. 

This  farm  is  known  as  the  Goodrich  property,  into 
whose  possession  it  came  in  1803.  It  was  the  birthplace 
of  that  eccentric  genius,  Phineas  G.  Goodrich,  known  in 
every  nook  and  corner  of  Wayne,  as  '"  tony-nosed  Good- 
rich," who  writes  of  Strong,  "I  had  this  from  the  early 
settlers  on  the  Paupack,  who  m  1778  hid  their  effects  in 
the  woods  and  fled  to  Orange  County,  to  escape  the  toma- 
hawk and  scalping-knife.  There  was  a  skirmish  here  on 
our  old  place  (Little  Meadow)  between  the  whites  and 
Indians.  The  whites  were  mostly  slain.  I  remember  the 
mound  that  was  raised  over  their  one  common  grave. 
Indians  and  whites  were  buried  together.  When  a  boy, 
I  used  to  find  the  arrows  and  broken  hatchets  of  the  red- 
men  around  the  mound  and  the  hill." 

In  1793  there  lived  a  man  here  by  the  name  of  Stanton, 
whose  one-roomed  log-house,  early  styled  an  "  Inn,"  fur- 
nished accommodation  for  the  wayfaring  man  and  beast. 
The  structure  itself,  standing  on  the  knoll  rising  west- 
ward from  the  meadow,  was  half  occupied  by  a  huge  fire- 
place and  chimney  grouped  from  stone  and  mud.  The 
guests,  emboldened  to  ascend  a  ladder  to  the  upper  story 
where  the  bare  rafters  greeted  the  head  of  the  aspirant, 
found  only  boughs  and  grass  spread  upon  the  pole  floor- 
ing for  their  reception  and  repose. 

Such  was  this  rustic  inn,  whose  counterpart  was  seen 
in  many  of  the  new  settlements.  Homely  as  was  its  fare, 
plain  as  were  its  pewter  dishes  and  single  hunting-knife, 
the  venison  or  bear  meat  swinging  from  the  trammels, 
hunger  made  always  welcome. 

Fox-meat  was  not  so  readily  appreciated.  A  stranger 
passing  the  way,  was  drawn  to  the  table  by  the  smell  of 
roasting  meat.  Taking  a  morsel  of  the  smoking  viand  in 
his  mouth,  it  stung  him  like  cayenne.  Thinking  that  the 
housewife  had  peppered  one  side  of  the  roast  too  highly, 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  321 

he  turned  the  dish  around  and  took  a  slice  from  the  other 
side  with  the  same  provoking  result.  He  laid  down  Ms 
knife  and  fork,  and  asked  the  good-natured  landlady, 
what  kind  of  meat  it  was.  "Why,"  replied  she,  very 
innocently,  "this  morning  my  husband  killed  a  fox,  so  I 
thought  I  would  roast  the  hind  quarter."  The  stranger 
was  furious.  "D — n  your  fox!"  he  exclaimed  as  he 
dashed  platter,  grease,  fox,  and  all  to  the  floor,  and  hastily 
resumed  his  journey. 

Bishop  Asbury,  after  visiting  Wyoming  in  1793,  re- 
turned to  New  York  over  this  route  by  Strong' s,  and  thus 
records  it  in  his  diary. 

"Monday  8,  1793. — I  took  the  wilderness,  through  the 
mountains  up  the  Lackawanna,  on  the  Twelve  Mile 
Swamp  ;  this  place  is  famous  for  dirt  and  lofty  hemlock. 

We  lodged  in  the  middle  of  the  swamp,  at  S 's,  and 

made  out  better  than  we  expected."  * 

Cobb's  house  on  the  slope  of  the  Moosic  Mountain,  a 
distance  of  about  eight  miles  from  Little  Meadows,  was 
reached.  The  white  cover  of  the  wagon,  jerking  up  or 
down  as  it  mounted  over  a  root,  or  plunged  into  a  rut, 
passed  over  creeks  never  yet  spanned  by  a  bridge.  The 
plain  house  of  Cobb,  floored,  ceiled,  and  shingled  with 
the  split  slabs,  was  too  small  to  accommodate  the  emigra- 
ting party,  who  found  in  the  hospitable  wagon  repose  for 
the  night.  Asa  Cobb  made  the  first  clearing  here  soon 
after  the  close  of  the  Revolution.  It  was  seven  miles,  or 
one  day' s  journey  from  Cobb' s,  to  where  now  stands  the  vil- 
lage of  Dunmore.  One  green  wave  of  tree-top  was  carried 
to  the  very  summit  of  the  mountain,  disturbed  by  no  clear- 
ing upon  its  western  slope  save  that  of  William  Alsworth, 
whose  cabin  half  hid  under  hemlock  and  spruce,  was  also 
termed  an  inn.  And,  although  the  rude  dwelling  had 
little  of  the  finish  about  it  of  modern  times,  the  social 
comforts  and  the  substantial  meals  and  beds  it  furnished 


'Dr.  Peck's  Early  Methodism,  p.  58. 
21 


322  I1ISTOKY   OK   THE 

to  the  casual  emigrant,  was  evidence  that  Alsworth  had 
lost  none  of  the  New  England  character.  The  good  old 
man,  who  acted  as  landlord,  hostler,  and  waiter,  and  doing 
every  chore  essential  to  household  affairs,  never  was  so 
delighted  as  when  he  saw  gathered  around  him  the 
happy  face  of  the  emigrant  or  his  guests,  and  his  greatest 
pleasure  seemed  to  be,  to  smooth  with  his  dry  jokes  and 
racy  stories  the  ruggedness  of  each  man's  daily  road. 

Pittston,  a  tidy  village  on  the  Susqiiehanna  of  half  a 
dozen  houses,  two  only  of  which  were  frame,  was  thus 
reached  after  a  journey  of  thirty-one  days.1 

THE   KISE   OF    METHODISM   IN   THE   VALLEY. 

As  the  emigrants  encamped  upon  Wyoming  generally 
acquiesced  in  Presbyterian  tenets,  an  organixation  friendly 
to  their  diffusion  was  easily  effected  under  the  ministra- 
tions of  the  Rev.  Jacob  Johnson,  an  officiating  minister 
in  the  colony,  as  early  as  1772,  and  who  for  many  years 
was  the  only  one,  with  a  single  exception,  in  all  the  wide 
territory  lying  between  Sunbury  and  the  Mohawk. 

Not  so,  however,  with  the  Methodists.  As  the  noiseless 
border  of  the  Lackawanna  began  to  thicken  with  a  popu- 
lation, whose  physical  wants  for  a  time  pressed  those  of  a 
spiritual  character  aside,  Sabbath  morning,  with  its  asso- 
ciations of  youthful  days  in  the  old  village  church  at 
home,  came  and  went  with  better  observance.  Hunting, 
fishing,  horse-racing,  or  wrestling  for  drinks  for  the  crowd, 
were  among  the  many  ways  chosen  to  wear  Sunday  away 
by  a  large  proportion  of  the  inhabitants  many  years  ago, 
before  religious  influences  crept  into  the  new  settlements 
of  Capoose  or  Pittston.  The  birth  of  Luxerne  County,  in 
1786,  modified  elements  hitherto  adverse  to  either  the 
achievements  of  Methodism,  or  the  favorable  propagation 
of  the  doctrines  of  any  organic  religious  interests. 

One  of  those  happy  characters  able  to  hew  their  wav 

1  Mr.-*.  Von  Storch. 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  323 

into  a  prominent  usefulness  emerged  from  a  blacksmith 
shop  in  Kingston,  and  commenced  to  exhort  and  explain 
the  liberal  doctrines  of  Methodism  to  the  world  in  1787. 
This  was  Anning  Owen.  He  had  early  emigrated  from 
Connecticut  to  Wyoming  with  the  pioneers  ;  had  fought 
beside  the  gallant  Butler  in  the  Indian  battle  on  the  plain 
until  the  day  was  lost,  escaping  only  with  his  life.  He 
accompanied  the  fugitives  to  the  East  after  the  massacre, 
where  he  remained  for  nine  years  before  he  again  crossed 
the  mountain  and  rolled  up  his  log-cabin  and  shop  on  the 
bank  of  Toby's  Creek,  in  Kingston.  Never  neglecting 
the  duties  of  his  shop  until  his  appointments  multiplied 
far  and  near,  he  officiated  in  the  double  capacity  of 
blacksmith  and  exhorter  for  a  few  seasons  before  he 
became  a  circuit  preacher  of  singular  efficiency  and  power. 

A  Methodist  class  was  formed  at  Ross  Hill,  Wyoming 
Valley,  in  1787-8 ;  three  years  later  a  similar  society, 
fewer  in  numbers,  was  first  organized  in  the  Lackawanna 
Valley,  at  the  forge  of  Dr.  Wm.  Hooker  Smith  and 
James  Sutton,  by  the  Rev.  James  Campbell,  who  had 
been  sent  hither  by  the  Philadelphia  Conference  for  this 
specific  purpose.  The  group,  composed  of  five  members, 
were  led  by  James  Sutton  as  class-leader. 

In  the  summer  of  1792  Mr.  Owen  ascended  the  Lacka- 
wanna to  Capoose  and  upper  Providence,  where  he 
preached  alternately  at  Preserved  Taylor's  and  Captain 
John  Vaughn' s,  in  private  houses.  Captain  Vaughn  had 
imbibed  the  broad  doctrines  of  Universalism,  but  their 
fallacious  character  was  so  demonstrated  and  proven 
by  the  plain  blacksmith,  that  he  forsook  them  forever, 
and  became  a  zealous  convert  to  Methodism.  Meetings 
were  also  occasionally  held  in  other  log-houses  or  cabins 
along  the  stream,  where  the  minister,  generally  poor  and 
penniless,  tarried  all  night,  and  enjoyed  the  abundant 
and  real  hospitality  of  the  valley.  Bishop  Asbury,  in 
his  reconnoiter  of  the  Lackawanna  and  Wyoming  valleys 
in  1793,  appointed  Valentine  Cook  presiding  elder. 


324:  HISTORY    OF    THE 

In  1800,  Methodist  meetings  were  held  once  a  month  at 
the  house  of  Preserved  Taylor,  in  Providence,  who  lived 
upon  the  western  border  of  Capoose  Meadow.  After  Mr. 
Taylors  removal,  the  dwelling  of  Squire  Potter,  two  miles 
farther  up  the  valley,  became  a  stated  preaching  point. 
In  fact,  the  lonely  school-house  or  the  isolated  cabin, 
afforded  the  only  places  for  religious  gatherings  in  the 
valley  until  the  fall  of  1828,  when  there  was  erected  the 
first  meeting-house  in  that  very  portion  of  it  last  settled 
—in  Carbondale. 

Meetings  were  sometimes  held  in  cool  groves  or  woods 
from  bare  necessity.  Some  shaded  nook,  watered  by 
a  spring  or  brook,  was  chosen  for  a  camp-ground.  Here, 
around  a  circle  well  cleared  of  underbrush  and  sheltered 
by  hemlock  or  beech  from  the  rays  of  the  sun,  rose 
the  whitened  tents  like  the  wigwams  of  the  cunning  bow- 
men, in  which  were  collected  groups  of  old  and  young, 
whose  pilgrimage  to  this  wild,  joyous  Mecca  was  long 
remembered  with  pleasure  and  profit. 

In  1803,  two  noisy  itinerants  went  forth  like  John  the 
Baptist,  to  prepare  the  way  of  the  Lord.  They  preached 
at  Kingston,  Plymouth,  Shawney.  Wilkes  Barre,  Pittston, 
Providence,  crossed  the  Moosic  Mountain  at  Cobb's, 
journeying  through  Salem,  Canaan,  Mount  Pleasant,  Great 
Bend,  and  Tunkhannock,  and  preaching  in  all  these 
places  before  returning  to  Wyoming.  In  1807,  a  regular 
circuit  was  formed,  and  a  portion  of  the  same  route  was 
traveled  over  twelve  times  a  year,  or  once  in  every  four 
weeks,  From  1810  until  1818,  George  Ilarman  and  Elder 
Owen  officiated  in  this  vineyard.  One  of  the  prominent 
members  of  the  church  here  then  was  old  "  Father 
Ireland,"  as  he  was  familiarly  called,  who  emigrated 
to  Providence  Township  in  1795,  and  settled  upon  what  is 
now  known  as  the  Briggs's  farm.  He  was  a  long  time 
a  class-leader.  In  his  intercourse  with  the  world,  his 
kindness  of  heart,  and  his  calm  and  virtuous  life,  until 
his  sun  passed  behind  the  horizon  after  a  long  day,  con- 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  325 

tributed  no  little  toward  softening  the  prejudices  of  the 
illiberal  against  the  Methodist  Society. 

The  two  events  marking  their  distinctive  era  in  the 
development  of  Methodism  in  the  valley  were  the  visit  of 
Bishop  Asbury  in  1793,  and  the  accession  to  its  strength 
of  the  young  but  bold  and  fervid  presence  of  the  Rev. 
George  Peck,  D.  D.,  in  1818.  He  brought  with  him 
a  fixed  purpose  to  diffuse  Christian  truths  in  the  new  field 
before  him,  in  the  exercise  of  which  he  was  made  familiar 
throughout  the  country  as  the  great  champion  of  Metho- 
dism. "In  less  than  a  century,"  said  he  to  Brother 
Taylor,  as  he  was  threading  his  way  along  the  infant 
settlement,  "this  charming  valley,  from  its  beauty  and 
fertility,  will  have  a  large  population  and  need  great  con- 
version. "  Heaven,  in  its  mercy,  has  given  the  venerable 
elder  fifty -three  years  in  the  pulpit,  with  a  yet  firm  step 
and  bright  eye,  so  that  he  has  not  only  lived  to  witness 
the  fulfillment  of  his  prophecy,  but  has  shared  in  the 
triumphs  of  faith  with  a  fidelity  and  complacency  en- 
joyed by  few.  Dr.  Peck  has  achieved  distinction  as  an 
author  of  great  ability,  as  his  numerous,  popular  volumes 
offered  the  public  attest. 

Although  many  of  the  uncharitable  charge  the  spirit- 
ual advisers  of  this  denomination,  with  mercenary  views 
as  they  direct  the  wanderer  on  to  the  New  Jerusalem,  we 
find  them  as  a  body  to  possess  as  little  selfishness,  and 
quite  as  much  true,  honest,  available  capacity,  and 
appreciation  of  the  right,  as  can  be  found  in  the  same 
number  of  men  of  any  creed  or  profession  in  the  country ; 
and,  although  some  within  the  writer' s  acquaintance  com- 
mand a  fortune,  few  a  competency,  while  very  many  are 
comparatively  poor,  thus  affording  a  decisive  commentary 
on  the  utter  want  of  judgment  of  the  illiberal.  And,  yet, 
beset,  with  every  inducement,  with  no  hope  of  personal 
advantage  or  emolument  from  their  ministerial  labors, 
and  pressed  by  wants  that  pride  conceals  from  the  care- 
less eye,  how  rarely  do  they  wield  their  talents  for  money, 


326  HISTORY    OF    THE 

position  or  power  !  And  yet  Avhen  a  whole  life  has  been 
spent  to  diffuse  those  sublime,  simple  truths  which  form 
the  basis  of  all  morals,  how  little  security  does  the  purity 
of  character  or  the  claim  of  age  offer  from  the  assaults  of 
parishioners  whose  liturgy  seems  but  a  desire  to  exile 
their  pastor,  and  whose  devotions  are  the  convenience  or 
but  the  fashion  of  the  hour  ! 


SMELLING   HELL. 

Anning  Owen  was  a  son  of  Vulcan,  a  stout,  swarthy, 
genuine  specimen  of  earnestness,  who  spoke  all  he  knew 
and  sometimes  more,  in  the  most  impulsive  manner.  He 
remarked  often,  that  he  preached  as  he  hammered  out  hot 
iron,  to  make  an  impression.  His  sermons  were  ahvays 
extempore;  after  he  warmed  up  in  his  favorite  subject, 
his  eye  grew  animated,  his  voice  full  and  clear,  as  he  dis- 
played eloquence  of  a  high  order. 

The  Methodists  labored  under  many  disadvantages. 
The  self-sacrificing  and  sometimes  boisterous  itinerants 
who  were  toiling  for  their  race  merely  for  the  sake  of 
good,  and  no  possible  hope  of  pecuniary  gain,  with  few 
thanks,  little  or  no  remuneration,  often  with  scanty  fare, 
were  sometimes  accused  of  ignorance,  bigotry,  and  fanati- 
cism, and  yet  under  the  effective  appeals  of 'Elder  Owen, 
much  of  this  common  error  was  dispersed,  while  the 
church,  augmenting  in  numbers,  surpassed  every  other 
denomination  in  the  extent  of  its  prosperity.  The  loud 
"hallelujahs."  "glories,"  and  "amens,"  which  pealed 
forth  from  the  preachers  in  such  sharp  accents  as  to  be 
heard  at  least  half  a  mile  from  the  stand  at  this  period, 
was  so  different  from  the  sober  mode  of  worship  of  the 
more  numerous  Presbyterians,  that  many  thought  them 
crazy,  and  in  one  or  two  instances  attempted  to  enforce 
silence  by  violent  measures. 

A  good  story  is  told  of  Elder  Owen  by  an  old  uncle 


LACK  AAV  ANN  A    VALLEY.  327 

of  the  writer,  who  heard  him  preach  at  a  quarterly  meet- 
ing, held  at  the  court-house  in  Wilkes  Barre,  in  the 
winter  of  1806.  Never  closing  his  sermons  without 
reminding  sinners  of  the  danger  of  brimstone,  it  had  at 
length  become  so  proverbial  that  the  boys  in  a  sportive 
mood  (for  there  were  sons  of  Belial  in  those  days  as  well 
as  now),  had  a  living  illustration  of  the  virtues  of  his 
doctrine,  at  the  elders  expense.  In  the  south  wing  of 
the  old  court-house  there  was  a  large  fire-place,  in  which 
smoked  a  huge  beechen  back-log.  Behind  this  some  of 
the  boys  had  placed  a  yellow  roll  of  the  genuine  article 
before  the  meeting  commenced  in  the  evening.  The.  elder 
— or  the  Son  of  Thunder  as  he  was  called — opened  his 
battery  with  more  force  than  usual  upon  the  citadel  of 
Satan.  He  began  to  grow  excited  while  elucidating  the 
words  of  his  text,  "he  that  believeth  not  shall  be 
damned."  The  flames  of  the  fire  began  to  penetrate  the 
region  where  lay  concealed  the  warming  and  wicked 
brimstone,  the  fumes  of  which  spread  through  the  room 
in  the  most  provoking  manner.  The  elder,  with  such  a 
re-enforcement  to  his  brain  and  his  battery,  felt  inspired. 
Although  ignorant  of  the  joke  the  devil  was  playing  upon 
him,  he  soon  appreciated  the  odor  of  his  resistless  agent. 
Turning  his  eye  upon  the  unconverted  portion  of  the  con- 
gregation, he  exclaimed  in  a  loud  voice,  "  Sinners  !  unless 
you  are  converted  you  will  be  cast  in  the  bottomless  pit." 
Pausing  a  moment  as  he  glanced  indignantly  upon  the 
tittering  ones  who  were  enjoying  the  scene  in  an  eminent 
degree,  he  raised  himself  to  his  utmost  height,  elevated 
his  voice  to  a  still  loftier  key,  and  at  the  same  time  bring- 
ing down  his  clinched  fist  with  a  powerful  stroke  upon 
the  judge's  desk,  cried  out,  "  Sinners,  why  don't  you 
repent,  dorit  you  smell  Tiellf 

It  may  be  interesting  to  note  that  in  1833  the  long- 
remembered  patriarch,  Lorenzo  Dow,  with  his  long  white 
beard  and  imposing  equipage,  in  passing  down  the  valley 
to  his  Southern  death-bed,  preached  to  a  vast  assemblage 


328  HISTORY    OF    THE 

in  a  barn  in  Providence.     This  barn  was  blown  over  by 
the  great  gale  in  1834. 

FORMATION   OF  ANTHRACITE   COAL. 

To  the  geologist  or  the  philosopher,  coal-formation 
affords  great  scope  for  theory  and  reflection.  The  gener- 
ally accepted  supposition  of  scientific  men,  is  that  the 
coal-fields,  once  densely  covered  with  trees  huge  as  the 
California  giants,  were  submerged  by  volcanic  action,  form- 
ing a  vast  lake  into  which  whirled  chaotic  material,  sepa- 
rated, in  the  molten  body  into  alternate  layers  of  coal, 
sandstone,  and  shale.  Different  seams  or  veins  of  coal 
are  thought  to  have  been  formed  at  different  periods  in  the 
world's  history,  but  under  similar  circumstances,  thus 
alternately  elevated  or  depressed.  The  progressive  char- 
acter of  fossils  appearing  in  separate  strata,  proves  their 
deposit  at  different  periods  ;  and  it  is  more  than  probable 
that  centuries  passed  between  their  respective  formations. 
Vegetable  and  organic  remains  found  in  one  stratum,  have 
no  analogy  in  another.  In  the  igneous  or  fire-rock  no 
carboniferous  element  enters,  while  coal,  viewed  with  a 
microscope,  delineates  the  carbonized  character  of  its  ori- 
gin. Many  hundreds  of  extinct  species  of  plants  have 
been  recognized  in  the  secondary  series  of  rocks.  The 
fern  is  found  in  the  greatest  abundance,  while  the  branch- 
ing mosses — the  calamites — the  sigillaria — the  cycades, 
and  the  palm  appear  io  ceaseless  profusion. 

Geological  examinations  made  in  the  Lackawanna  coal 
basin  seem  to  favor  the  idea  that  the  rocks  of  this  region, 
with  their  intervening  coal  strata,  originally  level  in  posi- 
tion, were  crumpled  or  folded  into  their  present  form  of 
alternate  basins  and  ridges  by  the  same  tremendous  con- 
vulsions or  slow  changes  which  crowded  up  the  Alle- 
ghany  ranges  ;  and  that,  since  then,  the  action  of  diluvial 
arid  atmospheric  agencies  have  worn  away  the  upper  or 
coal-bearing  strata  on  most  of  the  high  and  exposed  points 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY. 

of  the  Moosic  hills  and  mountains,  leaving  them  only  in 
the  troughs  or  depressions  which  were  sheltered  by  the 
mountain  rock  and  left  in  the  position  now  found  by  the 
miner.  The  contraction  or  cooling  of  the  anthracite  lakes, 
gave  the  dipping  or  broken  appearance  to  many  of  the 
veins  of  coal.  Coal  destitute  of  bitumen,  or  hard  coal, 
found  only  in  a  minute  portion  of  the  earth' s  surface,  every- 
where in  the  carboniferous  series  presents  the  same  phe- 
nomena of  fossils.  The  fern  being  identified  in  species 
and  genus  to  all  those  found  in  coal  bottoms,  it  is  inferred 
that  the  earth  in  its  primitive  period  was  insular,  and 
that  the  rank  vegetable  growing  then  was  the  result  of 
the  internal  heat  of  the  globe,  which  at  that  time  was  too 
uniform  to  affect  the  latitudes.  In  fact,  the  immense 
quantity  of  fossils  brought  to  light  along  the  Lackawanna, 
the  remains  of  that  by -gone  time,  attest  how  numerous  the 
herd,  and  how  hot  and  fertile  the  clime  of  that  ancient 
epoch. 

In  the  preparation  of  vegetable  matter  for  coal,  heat, 
pressure,  and  water,  were  probably  the  controlling  agents 
employed  millions  of  years  ago  in  the  great  cooking  labo- 
ratory of  nature. 

ORGANIC   REMAINS   IN   COAL   STRATA. 

Vegetable  fossil  and  organic  remains  have  been  found  in 
various  mines  in  the  valley — more  especially  in  the  town- 
ships of  Providence,  Blakeley,  and  Carbondale— im- 
bedded in  the  inclosing  strata,  preserving  every  original 
outline  except  the  change  effected  by  the  vast  pressure, 
from  the  rounded  to  the  flattened  form. 

A  largaturtle  family,  fossil  sea-shells,  and  fish  resem- 
bling the  gar-pike,  or  common  pickerel,  in  size  and  shape, 
were  found  in  Providence  during  the  summer  of  1856,  by 
Captain  Martin,  while  engaged  in  sinking  a  shaft,  at  the 
depth  of  some  200  feet.  These  were  incased  in  the  car- 
boniferous strata  in  such  relation  to  the  older,  deeper 


830  HISTORY    OF    THE 

rock  as  to  lead  to  the  belief  that  the  fish  had  once  in- 
habited an  open  space  of  water  communicating  with  a 
larger  body  or  with  the  ocean  itself,  which  by  some  up- 
heaval of  the  eartli  became  isolated,  the  waters  of  the  lake 
were  drained,  while  the  fish  perished  and,  intermingled 
with  sand,  shale,  and  stone,  were  translated  into  the  petri- 
fied specimens,  now  unresistingly  summoned  by  the 
miner's  drill. 

One  large  fish,  more  than  a  foot  in  diameter,  and  six 
feet  in  length,  its  fins,  scales,  and  general  structure  yet 
distinctly  recognized  upon  the  stereotyping  stone,  was 
exhumed  from  its  sepulcher,  and  blackened  and  brainless 
as  it  was  found,  takes  us  back  to  a  period  unknown  and 
remote.  This  fish  was  broken  while  being  blasted  out 
by  the  miner,  so  that  the  skillful  anatomist  could  soon 
determine,  by  the  nature  as  well  as  by  the  number  of  the 
exposed  vertebrae,  its  true  species. 

Rain-marks,  foot-prints,  stigmaria,  and  other  charac- 
teristics of  the  coal-measure,  have  been  furnished  in 
interesting  abundance,  within  a  comparative  small  space, 
during  the  progress  of  the  excavation  at  the  shaft  of  the 
Van  Stork  Coal  Company  in  Providence. 

In  1831,  while  Captain  Stott  was  driving  a  drift  in  the 
mines  at  Carbondale  for  the  Delaware  and  Hudson  Canal 
Company,  the  roof  of  the  mine,  becoming  dislocated  from 
the  parent  earth,  fell  in  over  a  considerable  surface, 
furnishing  the  richest,  aspect  of  vegetable  and  organic 
fossils.  Deep  in  the  fractured  interstratifying  stone  and 
slate  were  imprinted  innumerable  delicate  impressions  of 
leaves,  flowers,  broken  limbs,  of  the  palm  leaf  and  the 
fern,  so  remarkable  in  size  as  to  indicate  that  the  tempera- 
ture of  the  earth's  surface  at  the  period  of  their  growth 
was  far  too  heated  for  human  life  ;  fallen  trunks  and 
branches  of  trees,  so  singularly  dark  and  beautiful,  that 
Daguerre  could  neither  imitate  nor  improve  ;  huge  outlines 
and  tracks  of  the  ichthyosauri — the  giant  lizard,  curious 
in  anatomical  structure  and  strength ;  snakes,  ribbed  and 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  33J 

rounded,  whose  like  is  rarely  known,  and  whose  analogues 
are  only  found  near  the  tropics ;  a  class  of  amphibians 
intermediate  between  reptiles  and  fish — the  batracMan 
tribe — the  mammoth  frog,  foot-marks  of  which  were  dis- 
played, exhibiting  five  toes  before  and  four  behind,  mark- 
ing their  presence  and  passage  in  other  times ;  all  so  dis- 
tinctly and  so  terribly  delineated  upon  this  master-press  of 
nature,  as  to  convey  to  the  mind  some  faint  idea  of  the 
monsters  once  swarming  the  jungles,  and  whose  courts 
on  the  low,  wet,  warm  marshes  were  suddenly  adjourned 
by  the  great  phenomena  of  coal-formation. 

MINERALS   AND   MINING. 

The  Lackawanna  and  Wyoming  anthracite  coal  basin, 
walled  by  low  ranges  of  the  Alleghany,  and  drained  by 
the  placid  Lackawanna  and  Susquehanna,  is  about  fifty 
miles  in  length  and  averages  four  in  width.  Veins  of  the 
purest  anthracite  emerge  from  the  foot  of  the  mountains, 
its  entire  length  and  breadth.  The  lower  strata,  sunk 
at  a  mean  depth  of  four  or  five  hundred  feet  beneath  the 
surface  in  mid-valley,  show  themselves  higher  up  the 
mountain  side  than  those  located  nearer  the  surface  of  the 
valley. 

In  its  mineralogical  character,  the  Lackawanna  Valley 
is  both  varied  and  productive.  Filled  with  the  coal- 
measure  from  side  to  side,  it  not  only  presents  a  series  of 
slate  and  shale  interstratified  with  anthracite  from  a  few 
inches  to  as  many  feet  in  thickness,  but  iron  ore  and  lime- 
stone commingle  and  enrich  the  rugged  acres  of  the  inter- 
vale. Four  of  the  great  coal  seams  in  the  Lackawanna 
Basin,  viz. :  the  7,  8, 10,  and  12  feet  veins  (least  thickness), 
furnish  a  total  thickness  of  37  feet,  or  44,000  tons  per  acre. 

The  productive  character  of  this  coal  basin  is  exhibited 
by  the  following  table  prepared  by  Professor  Rogers, 1 

1  Report  of  the  Geology  and  Mining  in  the  Lackawanna  Valley. 


332 


HISTORY    OF    THE 


with  especial  reference  to  the  coal-bearing  in  the  township 
of  Providence : — 


TABLE. 


Least  Thickness 

Good  Coal. 

Yield  of  good  Coal  per  Acre 

5  feet 

3  feet 

4,000  tons. 

7 

•H  i% 

7,000 

10 

H 

12.000 

G 
12 

3 
9 

5,000 
15,000 

8 

6 

10,000 

G 

•H 

7,000 

54     " 

37*  " 

60,000     " 

These  seven  veins  alone  yield  60,000  tons  per  acre. 
Twelve  distinct,  separate  beds  underlying  the  entire 
valley,  furnish  about  sixty  feet  of  available  coal, — a  sup- 
ply ample  for  as  many  generations,  or  until  the  day  of 
ballooning  shall  bring  forth  a  new  discovery  calculated 
to  supersede  the  coal  fire,  as  the  old  beechen  back-log  of 
times  gone  by  has  vanished  into  ashes. 

While  the  center  of  the  Northern  and  Lackawanna 
coal-field  is  regarded  as  being  near  Pittston — the  bed  of 
the  ancient  caldron  once  glowing  with  anthracite — mines 
were  first  successfully  worked  at  Carbondale  at  least  one 
thousand  feet  above  the  level  of  Pittston  coal.  About 
twenty-five  miles  in  length  may  be  considered  as  the 
extent  of  this  field,  running  northeast  and  southwest  with 
the  great  Appalachian  chain. 

COAL   LANDS   FIFTY   YEAKS   AGO. 

Between  the  villages  of  Hyde  Park  and  Providence 
bristles  from  the  road-side  a  clump  of  pines,  swinging 
their  green  limbs  over  a  low,  faded  cottage,  once  made 
attractive  by  the  presence  of  a  young  and  loving  heiress. 
To  the  south  of  this  cottage  a  few  yards  opens  a  glen,  so 
worn  by  the  rapid  stream  dashing  through  it  after  a  heavy 
rain  or  sudden  snow-thaw,  as  to  make  it  look  almost 
cavernous.  Down  this  rock-rimmed  ravine,  where  it 
expands  into  the  ancient  meadow  of  Capoose,  there  lived 


LACKAWAXXA    VALLEY".  333 

an  old  gentleman  in  1800,  named  Stephen  Tripp,  who 
owned  much  of  the  land  in  the  notch  of  the  mountain, 
about  one  mile  above  this  point,  called  Leggett'  s  Gap. 

Upon  the  brink  of  Leggett' s  Creek,  passing  through 
this  gap,  a  small  grist-mill  was  erected  in  1805  by  Joseph 
Fellows,  Sen.,  the  remains  of  which  are  yet  visible  by 
the  road-side,  but  as  the  bank  upon  one  side  of  the  creek 
rose  almost  vertically  into  a  full  mountain,  and  upon  the 
other  ascended  quite  as  abruptly  hundreds  of  feet,  covered 
with"  the  stern  hemlock,  neither  road,  team,  nor  grist  could 
approach  the  mill  with  safety,  and  the  enterprise  was 
reluctantly  abandoned. 

This  mountain  mill- site,  with  a  quantity  of  the  wild 
land  in  the  vicinity  of  the  "Notch,"  Mr.  Fellows  pur- 
chased of  Tripp,  sixty  years  ago,  for  five  gallons  of 
whisky ;  Fellows  stipulating  in  the  purchase  to  pay 
expense  of  survey  and  deed.  The  commercial  worth  of 
whisky  being  one  dollar  per  gallon,  this  sale  realized 
about  five  cents  per  acre  for  lands  now  owned  and  mined 
by  the  Delaware,  Lackawanna,  and  Western  Railroad 
Company,  and  worth  at  least  five  thousand  dollars  per 
acre.  Some  estimate  of  the  value  of  coal  lands  at  this 
period  can  be  formed  by  the  following  incident.  A  then 
young  man  from  Connecticut,  who  recently  died  in  the 
adjoining  county  of  Wayne,  was  passing  along  through 
Slocum  Hollow  (now  Scranton),  and  observing  a  promi- 
nent cropping  of  coal  by  the  road-side,  asked  the  owner 
what  it  was,  and  what  it  was  good  for  ? 

"  Wai,"  replied  the  owner,  who  suspected  it  was  no 
great  credit  either  to  his  judgment  or  his  pocket  to 
possess  such  land,  "they  call  it  stone-coal.  I  believe, 
but  I  wish  the  cussed  black  stuff  was  off!" 

THE     DISCOVERY     AND    INTRODUCTION     INTO     USE     OF 
ANTHRACITE     COAL. 

When  lands  passed  from  the  natives  to  the  whites,  all 
knowledge  of  mineral  deposits  was  rigidly  withheld. 


331  HISTORY    OF   THE 

Tradition  gives  a  definite  place  to  mines  of  gold,  silver, 
lead,  iron,  copper,  and  coal,  in  neighborhoods  far  up  in 
the  wilderness  where  the  wild  man  dwelt  in  his  silent 
realm,  but  so  carefully  did  the  Indians,  who  knew  less  of 
the  crucible  than  the  cupidity  of  the  trader,  baffle  the 
whites  in  their  concealment,  that  their  existence  or  loca- 
tion has  become  the  subject  of  strange  tales.  If  the  men 
skilled  in  the  lore  of  the  forest  were  familiar  with 
precious  metals  or  black  stones,  their  worth  was  taught 
them  by  the  whites. 

Of  the  value,  or  even  the  existence  of  coal  in  America, 
all  races  were  ignorant  until  about  the  middle  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  "At  Christian  Spring  (near  Naz- 
areth) there  was  living  about  the  year  1750  to  '55  a 
gunsmith,  who,  upon  application  being  made  him  by 
several  Indians  to  repair  their  rifles,  replied  that  he  was 
unable  to  comply  immediately  ;  '  for,'  says  he,  '  I  am 
entirely  bare  of  charcoal,  but  as  I  am  now  engaged  in 
setting  some  wood  to  char  it,  therefore  you  must  wait 
several  weeks.'  This,  the  Indians  (having  come  a  great 
distance)  felt  loath  to  do  ;  they  demanded  a  bag  from  the 
gunsmith,  and  having  received  it,  Avent  away,  and  in  two 
hours  returned  with  as  much  stone-coal  as  they  could  well 
carry.  They  refused  to  tell  where  they  had  procured  it." 

That  portion  of  Pennsylvania  purchased  of  the  Five 
Nations  by  the  Connecticut  Susquehanna  Company  at 
Albany,  July  11,  1754,  for  "the  sum  of  two  thousand 
pounds  of  current  money  of  the  province  of  New  York,"  * 
embraced  the  Lackawanna  and  Wyoming  coal  district. 
Fourteen  3*ears  later,  November  5,  1708,  the  same  ter- 
ritory was  included  in  the  Fort  Stanwix  purchase  of  the 
Indian  Nations  by  the  Proprietary  Government  of  Penn- 
sylvania. The  strife  between  Pennsylvania  and  Connec- 
ticut over  Wyoming  resulted  from  these  purchases. 

As  early  as  1648,  iron  and  copper  mines  were  worked 

1  Wm.  Henry.     'See  original  Deed  of  Six  Nations  to  SiiKqnehanna  Co. 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  335 

in  an  imperfect  manner  by  the  Dutch  and  Swedes,  at 
a  small  village  on  the  Delaware  called  Durham,  a  few 
miles  below  Easton  ;  but  no  mention  of  coal  is  made  upon 
any  map  of  Pennsylvania  until  1770,  when  one  published 
by  Wm.  Schull,  of  Philadelphia,  bears  the  word  "  coal" 
in  two  places.  Pottsville  and  Minersville  are  now  located 
upon  the  points  thus  indicated. 

On  the  original  draft  of  the  "Manor  of  Sunbury,"  em- 
bracing the  entire  western  side  of  Wyoming  Valley,  sur- 
veyed in  1768  by  Charles  Stewart,  in  the  Proprietary 
interests,  appears  the  brief  notation,  "stone-coal,"  with- 
out further  explanation. 

A  Yankee  named  Obediah  Gore,  who  emigrated  from 
Connecticut  to  Wyoming  in  February,  1769,  began  life 
in  the  new  colony  as  a  blacksmith.  Friendly  with  the 
remaining  natives  from  motives  of  policy,  he  learned  of 
them  the  whereabouts  of  black  stones,  and,  being  withal 
a  hearty  and  an  experimenting  artisan,  he  succeeded  after 
repeated  trials  and  failures  in  mastering  the  coal  to  his 
shop  purposes  the  same  year.  He  is  believed  to  have 
been  the  first  white  man  to  give  practical  recognition  and 
development  to  anthracite  as  a  generator  of  heat.  Mr. 
Gore,  afterward  an  associate  judge  of  Luzerne  County, 
was  one  of  the  brave  defenders  of  Forty  Fort  in  1778, 
when  assailed  by  the  British  and  their  Indian-Tory  allies. 
In  the  few  blacksmith  shops  in  Wyoming  Valley  and  the 
West  Branch  Settlement,  coal  was  gradually  introduced 
after  its  manipulation  by  Mr.  Gore. 

When  the  struggle  for  American  Independence  began 
in  1775,  the  Proprietary  Government  of  Pennsylvania 
found  itself  so  pressed  for  fire-arms,  that  under  the  sanction 
of  the  Supreme  Executive  Council  two  Durham  boats 
were  sent  up  to  Wyoming  and  loaded  with  coal  at  Mill 
Creek,  a  few  miles  below  the  mouth  of  the  Lackawanna, 
and  floated  down  the  Susquehanna  to  Harris's  Ferry 
(Harrisburg)  thence  drawn  upon  wagons  to  Carlisle  and 
employed  in  furnaces  and  forges  to  supply  the  defenders 


336  HISTORY    OF    THE 

of  our  country  with  arms.     Thus  stone-coal  by  its  patri- 
otic triumphs  achieved  its  way  into  gradual  use. 

Beyond  the  limits  of  Wyoming,  no  discoveries  of  coal 
were  made  until  1791.  During  this  year,  "a  hunter,  by 
the  name  of  Philip  Ginther,  who  had  built  himself  a 
rough  cabin  in  the  forest,  on  the  Mauch  Chunk  Moun- 
tain, being  out  one  day  in  quest  of  food  for  his  family, 
whom  he  had  left  at  home  without  any  supply,  meeting 
with  but  poor  success,  bent  his  course  homeward  as  night 
was  approaching,  considering  himself  one  of  the  most 
forsaken  of  human  beings.  As  he  trod  slowly  over  the 
ground  his  foot  stumbled  against  something,  which  by 
the  stroke,  was  driven  before  him  ;  observing  it  to  be 
black,  to  distinguish  which  there  was  just  enough  light 
remaining,  he  took  it  up,  and  as  he  had  often  listened  to 
the  traditions  of  the  country  of  the  existence  of  coal  in 
the  vicinity,  it  occurred  to  him  that  this  might  be  a  portion 
of  that  *  stone-coal '  of  which  he  had  heard.  He  accord- 
ingly carefully  took  it  with  him  to  his  cabin,  and  the 
next  day  carried  it  to  Colonel  Jacob  Weiss,  residing  at 
what  was  then  known  as  Fort  Allen,  now  AVeissport."  ' 

Coal-pits  were  opened  here  in  May,  1792,  by  the 
'•Lehigh  Coal  and  Mine  Company,"  which  gratuitously 
distributed  the  brittle  compound  into  every  blacksmith 
shop  in  this  portion  of  the  State  willing  to  use  it. 

When  the  forest  began  to  recede  and  the  fresh  charred 
land  engaged  the  thoughts  of  the  backwoodsman  on  the 
Lackawanna,  stone-coal  had  neither  value  nor  recognition 
among  men,  with  but  a  single  exception. 

In  1815,  there  died  an  eminent  physician  and  surgeon 
in  Tunkhannock,  who  had  formerly  lived  in  the  Lacka- 
wanna Valley,  and  who  made  the  first  purchase,  in  the 
county  of  Luzerne  of  the  right  to  mine  coal  here,  of 
which  record  evidence  is  furnished.  This  was  Dr.  Wil- 
liam Hooker  Smith,  who  made  a  number  of  such  pur- 

1  Henry's  Lehigh  Valley,  p.  377. 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEV.  337 

chases  for  a  mere  song,  between  the  years  of  1792  and 
1798. 

A  bushel  of  coal  was  sent  to  Christian  Micksch,  a  gun- 
smith in  Nazareth,  in  November,  1798,  but  after  trying  it 
for  three  or  four  days  by  repeated  blowing  and  punching 
and  altering  the  fire  in  every  possible  manner,  he  grew  so 
impatient  at  his  long,  fruitless  efforts,  that  he  indignantly 
threw  it  into  the  street,  saying  to  Mr.  William  Henry,  of 
whom  he  had  purchased  a  bushel,  "I  can  do  nothing 
with  your  black  stones,  and  therefore  I  threw  them  out  of 
my  shop  into  the  street ;  I  can't  make  them  burn.  If  you 
want  any  work  done  with  them,  you  may  do  it  yourself ; 
everybody  laughs  at  me  for  being  such  a  fool  as  to  try  to 
make  stones  burn,  and  they  say  that  you  must  be  a  fool 
for  bringing  them  to  Nazareth." 

During  General  Sullivan's  march  through  Wyoming  in 
1779,  one  of  his  officers  wrote  of  the  valley  :  "The  land 
here  is  excellent,  and  comprehends  vast  mines  of  coal, 
pewter,  lead,  and  copperas."  l  The  last  three  named  have 
never  been  found  here.  The  first  few  ark-loads  of  coal, 
carried  from  Mauch  Chunk  to  Philadelphia  was  pur- 
chased by  the  city  authorities,  placed  under  the  boiler  of 
an  engine,  where  it  "put  the  fire  out,  while  the  remain- 
der of  the  coal  was  broken  up  and  used  for  graveling 
streets."  * 

Knowing  that  there  was  value  in  coal,  which,  in  spite 
of  the  universal  prejudice  against  its  encroachments  upon 
the  old  wood-pile  and  fire,  would  be  made  manifest  by 
moral  firmness  and  persistent  struggle,  and  that  it  would 
rescue  their  mountains  from  oblivion,  the  Lehigh  opera- 
tors, animated  by  no  hope  of  immediate  remuneration, 
mined  a  larger  quantity  of  coal  in  1806.  The  general  dis- 
trust, however,  of  using  stony  fuel  for  domestic  purposes 
was  so  prevalent  even  among  intelligent  persons,  that 
comparatively  none  could  be  sold,  little  accepted  as  a  gift, 

'George  Grant's  Report,  1779.  *  William  Henry. 

22 


338  HISTORY   OF   THE 

thus  compelling  these  gentlemen  to  suspend  operations, 
and  calmly  wait  and  watch  for  the  public  mind  to  become 
schooled  in  the  treasures  of  the  Lehigh.  Men,  however 
upright  and  honorable,  who  talked  of  its  introduction  into 
common  use  in  Philadelphia,  were  deemed  fanatics,  and 
ridiculed  accordingly  ;  those  attempting  to  sell  the  stuff' 
for  cash,  compromised  their  integrity,  and  in  some 
instances  barely  escaped  arrest  and  maltreatment  from 
the  hands  of  the  populace. 

The  late  Hon.  Charles  Miner  came  to  Wyoming  in  1799, 
and  for  thirteen  years  afterward  edited  the  Luzerne  Fed- 
eralist, a  weekly  newspaper  published  at  Wilkes  Barre, 
and  conducted  with  such  marked  ability  and  success,  that 
he  soon  became  widely  known  as  one  of  the  strongest  and 
most  pleasing  writers  in  the  State.  An  accomplished 
scholar,  an  ingenious  advocate,  he  combated  the  unspar- 
ing prejudices  of  the  bigoted  with  an  earnestness  calcu- 
lated to  correct  rather  than  offend. 

No  man  labored  with  more  unselfish  fervor  to  unmuffle 
the  coal-field  or  acquaint  the  masses  with  the  grandeur  of 
its  character,  than  did  the  author  of  the  History  of 
Wyoming.  Mankind,  ever  ready  to  embrace  error,  are 
slow  to  perceive  great  truths.  The  fallacy  of  employing 
stones  gleaned  from  the  mountain  a  hundred  miles  away 
for  fuel,  was  so  great,  that  the  gray-headed  octogenarian 
and  the  beardless  youth — with  all  the  intermediate  condi- 
tions of  life — laughed  at  the  joke  attempted  to  be  played 
upon  tit  em.  Old  heads  and  young  ones  for  once  shared 
harmonious  convictions  as  they  arranged  themselves  as  a 
unit  on  the  orthodox  side.  Lectures  delivered  gratuitously 
explaining  the  power  and  character  of  the  new  combusti- 
ble ;  certificates  from  Wyoming  blacksmiths  attesting  its 
superiority  ;  newspaper  articles  written  with  ability  and 
patience,  brought  from  the  timid  unbelievers  not  even  a 
dull  acknowledgment  or  approval.  Or  if  a  few  assented 
to  its  possible  future  use  in  some  capacity  or  another, 
they  blended  their  assent  with  such  a  negative  spirit  as  to 


L  APR  A  WANNA    VALLEY.  339 

be  little  less  obnoxious  than  the  blunt,  open  hostility  ac- 
corded it  everywhere  in  Philadelphia,  the  only  place  coal 
was  sought  to  be  introduced.  Quakers,  acquiring  a  com- 
petency by  the  slow  accretions  of  patient  toil,  were  the 
first  to  menace  and  oppose  the  innovation  of  coal.  As  this 
respectable  body,  generally  calm  in  its  judgment,  repre- 
sented the  great  bulk  of  Philadelphia  enterprise  and 
intelligence,  its  decision  carried  a  weight  fatal  and  con- 
clusive in  the  matter.  Meantime,  stone-coal,  better  under- 
stood among  feudal  rocks,  began  to  receive  especial 
homage  in  the  Valley  of  Wyoming. 

Jesse  Fell — afterward  Judge  Fell — a  plain,  modest 
reflective  blacksmith,  living  in  Wllkes  Barre,  gave  it  its 
first  successful  impulse  toward  general  domestic  use.  In 
watching  the  light  blue  flame  issuing  from  the  furnace  of 
his  shop,  made  livelier  by  a  draft  of  air  from  the  hale 
lungs  of  a  bellows,  he  conceived  the  idea  of  inaugurating 
a  coal  fire  into  an  ordinary  fire-place.  His  plan,  just  and 
reasonable  as  it  appeared  in  his  own  mind  for  a  while, 
faltered  before  the  strong  weapon  of  simple  ridicule. 

In  the  leisure  hour  of  an  evening,  he  built  up  a  jamb 
of  brick  work  in  an  old  fire-place  in  his  house,  upon 
which  he  placed  four  or  five  bars  of  common  square  iron, 
with  a  sufficient  number  up  in  front  to  hold  wood  and 
coal.  He  filled  this  contrivance  with  hard  wood,  after 
igniting  which,  he  piled  on  a  quantity  of  coal,  sought 
his  bed  and  was  soon  lost  in  slumber.  This  was  done 
late  at  night  lest  the  people  of  the  neighborhood  might 
again  laugh  at  him  for  the  persistency  of  his  folly.  Early  in 
the  morning  as  he  awoke,  he  was  astonished  and  cheered 
to  witness  the  coal  fire  announcing  its  own  unconscious 
achievement.  That  fire,  kindling  a  glow  of  anthracite 
throughout  the  world,  carried  the  name  of  Judge  Fell 
down  in  history.  Such  was  the  theme  of  universal  rejoicing 
throughout  the  valley  that  the  event  was  discussed  at 
every  fireside  ;  the  topic  went  with  the  people  to  church, 
and  was  diffused  throughout  the  congregation  at  large  ; 


340  HISTORY    OF    THE 

by  common  assent,  it  entered  for  a  while  into  all  conver- 
sations at  home  and  abroad  ;  it  silenced  every  adverse 
criticism  as  it  gave  the  signal  for  long  and  mutual  con- 
gratulations at  the  hospitable  house  of  the  judge,  where 
friend  and  foe  alike  acquiesced  in  the  truth  that  Wyo- 
ming was  freighted  with  infinite  fortune. 

Judge  Fell,  long  secretary  of  the  Masonic  lodge  at 
Wilkes  Barre,  deeming  the  event  worthy  of  note,  wrote 
the  following  memoranda  upon  the  fly-leaf  of  the  Masonic 
Monitor,  in  the  bold,  beautiful  off-hand  style  for  which 
he  was  reputed  : — 

"  February  llth,  of  Masonry  5808.  Made  the  experi- 
ment of  burning  the  common  stone-coal  of  the  valley,  in  a 
grate,  in  a  common  fire-place  in  my  house,  and  find  it  will 
answer  the  purpose  of  fuel,  making  a  clearer  and  better 
fire,  at  less  expense,  than  burning  wood  in  the  common 
way.  JESSE  FELL. 

"FEBRUARY   llth,    1808." 

A  few  ark -loads  of  coal  went  down  the  Susquehanna 
with  the  spring  freshets  from  Wyoming  to  Harrisburg, 
where  it  was  treated  with  the  same  indifference  or  derision 
shown  preceding  cargoes  to  Philadelphia. 

The  intercourse  between  the  inhabitants  of  Wilkes 
Barre  and  Philadelphia  being  considerable  in  the  unhur- 
ried clays  of  the  stage-coach  ;  and  anthracite  being  found 
in  abundance  in  1812  on  the  upper  waters  of  the  Schuyl- 
kill,  united  auxiliary  influences  to  bear  upon  the  public 
mind  in  the  city  to  such  an  extent,  that  the  next  year 
when  Col.  George  M.  Hollenback  sent  two  four-horse 
wagon-loads  of  coal  from  Mill  Creek  to  Philadelphia,  it 
was  sold  with  little  effort  to  a  few  liberal  patrons,  among 
whom  were  the  Wurtses,  afterward  conspicuous  as  pio- 
neers in  the  Lackawanna  coal-field. 

Up  the  Lackawanna,  coal  was  first  burned  in  1812,  by 
H.  C.  L.  Von  Storch,  of  Providence.  A  bare  body  of  it, 
washed  by  the  high  waters  of  spring,  early  exhibited  its 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  341 

bald,  blackened  features  by  the  side  of  the  stream,  near 
his  dwelling.  The  same  body  or  vein  can  yet  be  seen 
lying  equidistant  between  the  bridge  crossed  by  Sander- 
son's  railroad  and  Von  Storch's  slope.  Ignorant  of  the 
laws  of  mining,  Mr.  Von  Storch  dug  up  the  coal  as 
ordinary  earth  is  dug.  In  an  awkward  grate,  contrived 
from  iron  made  at  Slocum  Hollow,  he  used  the  coal  as  a 
substitute  for  wood.  His  success  was  so  complete,  that 
although  the  woods  encircling  his  clearing  offered  its 
timber  and  coal  for  naught  but  the  trouble  of  securing 
them,  the  superior  genius  of  the  latter,  as  an  economical 
agent,  was  acknowledged  even  here. 

This  stratum  of  coal,  half-hidden  under  its  rocky  pillow, 
at  once  changed  the  entire  tenantry  and  business  aspect 
of  the  valley.  William  and  Maurice  Wurts,  the  real 
accoucheurs  of  this  coal  basin,  were  impelled  hither  in 
1812  in  search  of  coal,  and  while  exploring  every  gap 
and  gorge,  came  across  this  prominent  out-shoot.  They 
desired  earnestly  to  purchase,  and  had  it  fallen  into 
their  possession,  as  it  possibly  would  have  done  had  it 
not  been  for  the  success  of  Von  Storch  in  burning  coal 
found  upon  it,  aside  from  the  many  changes  it  would 
have  effected  in  all  the  relations  of  the  valley,  it  is  barely 
possible  that  Honesdale,  Carbondale,  Archbald,  or  Oly- 
phant  would  have  arisen  from  the  wilderness,  or  grown 
into  towns  of  their  present  importance. 

ISTor  can  it  be  supposed  that  Scranton,  with  its  irre- 
sistible expansion,  would  have  been  even  in  existence  to- 
day as  Scranton,  if,  from  the  operations  of  tjie  Wurtses  on 
Von  Storch's  farm  in  Providence,  "Wurtsdale,"  or 
some  other  town,  had  sprung  into  being,  because  the  men 
whose  name  it  bears — especially  the  late  George  W.  and 
the  present  Joseph  H.  Scranton,  who  have  contributed 
as  much,  if  not  more,  to  shape  the  varied  industrial 
interests  of  this  section  of  the  valley  than  any  other 
persons  connected  with  its  history — would  have  turned 
elsewhere  their  really  effective  energies. 


342  HISTORY    OF    THE 

Bituminous  coal,  used  to  a  considerable  extent  in  Phila- 
delphia at  this  time,  being  withheld  from  Liverpool  by 
the  collision  with  England,  intelligent  men  Avho  had 
acquired  coal  property  and  privileges  for  almost  nothing, 
aimed  to  supply  its  place  with  anthracite.  Hon.  Charles 
Miner  and  Jacob  Cist,  Esq.,  both  prominent  in  the  im- 
provements of  the  day,  sent  down  an  ark-load  of  twenty- 
four  tons  of  coal  from  Mauch  Chunk  to  Philadelphia 
in  the  fall  of  1814.  By  personal  address  and  the  neces- 
sities of  manufacturing  interests,  they  disposed  of  it  all 
with  but  little  loss  to  themselves.  As  the  cost  of  trans- 
portation, fourteen  dollars  per  ton,  to  an  unwilling 
market,  exceeded  the  receipts,  these  gentlemen  soon 
withdrew  from  the  proprietorship  of  the  mines.  While 
Mr.  Miner  promulgated  and  widened  a  knowledge  of  the 
qualifications  of  the  new  fuel,  Mr.  Cist,  a  merchant  by 
profession,  a  natural  genius  and  mechanic,  was  the  first 
person  to  construct  a  pattern  for  burning  coal  in  stoves. 
The  stove  was  a  high,  square  aifair,  uncouth  in  style,  and 
yet  a  great  step  in  advance  of  coal  grates  in  use  at  the  time. 

While  the  coal,  in  ordinary  grates,  burned  without 
smoke,  spark,  or  flame,  the  flues  of  the  chimneys  built 
without  adaptation  to  its  use,  proved  so  defective  that  the 
dust  and  sulphurous  odor  filling  the  low-roomed  houses 
from  the  fires  were  almost  insufferable.  The  venerable 
Dr.  Peck  informs  the  writer  that  when  he  came  into  the 
valley,  in  1818,  there  were  but  two  houses  along  the 
Lacka wanna  where  stone-coal  had  made  invasions  upon 
the  green  wood  pile  and  smutty  fire-place.  One  was  Pre- 
served Taylor's,  the  other  at  Von  Storclrs.  At  no  place 
in  Wyoming  was  there  at  this  time  more  than  a  single 
grate  used  in  any  dwelling.  Joseph  Slocum,  Lord  Butler, 
Philip  Myers,  Charles  Miner,  Jacob  Cist,  George  M. 
Hollenback,  and  perhaps  a  half-a-doxen  others,  comprised 
the  entire  number  of  individuals  having  even  a  single 
grate  in  their  houses  fifty  years  ago  in  Wyoming  Valley.1 

1  Dr.  Peck. 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  343 

The  first  coal  taken  from  the  valley  of  Wyoming  in 
a  canal-boat  was  started  October  20,  1832. 

WILLIAM  AND  MAURICE  WUKTS — EXPLORATION  IN  THE 
COAL-FIELD  OF  THE  LACKAWANNA — CONCEPTION  AND 
EARLY  HISTORY  OF  THE  DELAWARE  AND  HUDSON 
CANAL. 

The  war  of  1812,  dissolving  many  arrogant  illusions 
across  th£  water,  was  a  powerful  if  not  the  chief  auxil- 
iary in  the  work  of  changing  the  passive  and  sedate  char- 
acter of  the  Lackawanna  coal-fields. 

This  war,  interrupting  commercial  intercourse  with 
Liverpool  and  Virginia,  cut  off  the  supplies  of  fuel  from 
those  places  so  completely,  that  charcoal  rose  to  a  ruinous 
price.  To  the  manufacturing  interests  of  the  country,  the 
consequences  were,  of  course,  highly  disastrous.  Men 
familiar  with  the  nature  of  anthracite  coal  attempted  to 
relieve  this  embarrassment  if  possible,  by  the  discovery 
and  introduction  among  manufacturers  of  this  new  kind 
of  fuel. 

How  their  efforts  were  met  and  encouraged  by  the 
grand,  great  aggregate  popular  side  in  Philadelphia,  the 
reader  already  understands. 

Long  before  the  coal  heart  of  the  Lackawanna  was 
startled  by  the  drill  of  the  miner,  there  was  occasionally 
seen  in  the  valley  a  young,  self-reliant,  and  determined 
man,  who,  trained  by  experience  in  steady  habits  and 
modest  bearing,  acquired  the  honor,  in  connection  with 
his  elder  brother  Maurice,  of  planning  and  maturing 
schemes  under  the  shadows  of  the  Moosic,  which  gave  an 
impulse  to  the  interests  of  commerce,  whose  influence  was 
immediate  and  broadcast  throughout  the  world.  Ener- 
getic and  active,  enjoying  sound  judgment,  a  robust  body 
that  wavered  only  after  long  exposure  in  vindicating  his 
theory  by  a  practical  development,  he  roamed  for  a 
series  of  years  along  the  stream  from  its  headsprings  be- 


344  HISTORY    OF    THK 

yond  the  coal-measure  down  to  its  staid  outgoing.  This 
was  William  Wurts,  a  merchant  of  Philadelphia. 

His  first  hope,  founded  upon  the  obscure  knowledge 
attainable  at  that  early  day  of  the  contour  and  geological 
structure  of  the  country,  was  to  trace  the  coal  up  the  val- 
ley of  the  Lackawanna,  in  the  direction  of  the  general 
trend  of  the  mountain  ranges,  to  the  Delaware  River. 
Obliged  to  abandon  this  idea,  and  still  retaining  the  Dela- 
ware in  view  as  the  grand  highway  for  the  transportation 
of  his  coal  to  market,  his  next  conception  was  to  reach 
the  nearest  tributary  of  that  stream,  the  Lackawaxen* 
leading  a  quiet  life  upon  the  opposite  side  of  the  Moosic. 
This  barrier  between  the  Lackawanna  and  Lackawaxen, 
guarded  by  woods  and  granite,  like  the  calumet  offered  as 
a  token  of  peace,  increased  rather  than  abated  the  fervor 
of  his  enthusiasm. 

The  explorations  of  Mr.  Wurts,  commencing  about 
1812,  were  extended  by  himself  and  subsequently  by  his 
agents  over  the  central  and  northern  portion  of  the  valley 
while  it  was  as  rugged  as  when  it  offered  no  longer  a  home 
to  the  Monseys.  None  of  the  eastern  passes  in  the  Moosic, 
viz. :  Rixe's,  Wagner's,  and  Cobb's  had  ever  been  marked 
for  a  road,  with  the  exception  of  the  latter  one.  These  he 
repeatedly  examined,  with  a  view  of  finding  a  passage 
from  the  coal-mines  to  the  headsprings  of  the  Lacka- 
waxen, through  whose  waters  it  was  supposed  that  coal 
could  be  carried  toward  an  eastern  market. 

A  trivial  incident  favored  the  researches  and  designs  of 
Mr.  Wurts.  While  searching  up  and  down  the  Lacka- 
wanna he  came  across  a  hunter,  named  David  Nobles, 
familiar  with  places  where  black  stones  could  be  readily 
pointed  out.  The  State  of  Pennsylvania  had  not  at  this 
time  withdrawn  its  prerogative  of  imprisonment  for  debt. 
David  Nobles,  struggling  in  vain  with  poverty  he  inher- 
ited, being  threatened  for  a  trifling  debt  by  an  extortion- 
ate neighbor  in  the  county  of  Wayne,  fled  to  the  woods 
with  his  gun  to  avoid  the  officer  and  the  jail.  Mr.  Wurts 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  34:5 

found  him  rambling  over  Ragged  Island,  heard  his  simple 
story,  and,  after  giving  him  the  wherewithal  to  secure  his 
exemption  from  arrest,  employed  him  to  hunt  coal  and 
bring  knapsacks  of  provisions  over  the  mountain  from 
the  township  of  Canaan,  where  a  few  farmers  lived.  He 
became,  during  the  summer  months,  the  inseparable  com- 
panion of  the  pioneer,  sounding  his  way  up  the  winding 
of  the  Lackawanna.  His  knowledge  of  the  woods  and 
location  of  coal  territory  made  him  competent  as  a  guide 
and  invaluable  as  an  employee. 

After  the  discovery  of  vast  bodies  of  coal  upon  lands, 
the  possession  of  which  was  essential  in  maturing  the 
original  purpose,  Mr.  Wurts  and  Nobles  visited  Northum- 
berland to  purchase  them.  As  the  shabby  exterior  of 
Mr.  Nobles  carried  no  dignity,  nor  awakened  suspicions 
of  wealth  or  any  ulterior  object,  he  was  selected  to  make 
preliminary  negotiations  and  the  final  purchase.  Nobles 
intimated  to  the  owner,  who  had  no  knowledge  of  the 
eyes  glancing  longingly  over  his  waste  of  acres,  that  he 
and  his  numerous  brothers  desired  to  farm  it  on  a  large 
scale  somewhere  along  the  frontier,  where  a  considerable 
tract  of  wild  land  could  be  bought  for  a  trifle.  The 
owner,  eager  to  accept  any  definite  offer  for  lands  hitherto 
unsought  by  the  settlers  below,  readily  acquiesced  in  the 
terms  of  sale.  Mr.  Nobles,  unable  to  make  payment 
himself,  called  in  "his  friend"  Wurts,  in  whose  name  the 
contract  was  signed  for  possessions,  which  gave  him  the 
key  to  a  coal  fortress  first  assailed  in  the  valley. 

By  such  artifices,  honorable  and  ingenious  as  they  were, 
Mr.  Wurts  secured  control  of  several  thousand  acres  of 
coal  land  in  the  county  of  Luzerne,  in  the  year  of  1814. 
The  cost  of  the  land  at  this  time  was  but  fifty  cents  to 
three  dollars  per  acre.  The  giant  timber  spread  over  it 
was  of  no  account,  and  much  of  it  upon  the  site  of  Car- 
bondale  was  felled  and  burned  away  to  prepare  it  for  the 
reception  of  the  cabins  of  the  workmen.  These  pur- 
chases made  by  an  expenditure  now  considered  nominal 


346  HISTORY    OF   THE 

and  vague,  included  the  region  where  Carbondale  and 
Archbald  are  located,  with  a  portion  of  the  intervening 
land,  and  a  small  section  in  Providence,  on  the  Anderson 
farm,  above  Cobb's  Gap  ;  where,  in  1814,  he  opened  the 
seven  and  nine  feet  veins  of  coal  to  obtain  specimens  for 
exhibitions  in  Philadelphia,  New  York,  and  other  sec- 
tions of  country. 

Hon.  Paul  S.  Preston,  of  Stockport,  Pennsylvania,  now 
hale  and  hearty,  in  his  73d  year,  a  warm  friend  of  the  late 
Col.  Scranton  and  the  Erie  road,  who,  in  1849,  predicted 
"that  the  transit  of  coal  north  and  west,  within  the  next 
quarter  of  a  century  would  exceed  that  of  the  present 
day  to  the  south  and  the  east,"  l  thus  writes  :  "In  1804, 
my  father  run  an  exploration  line  from  Stockport  to  Mis- 
shoppen,  passing  through  what  is  now  known  as  (I  believe) 
Gris wold's  Gap.  In  crossing  the  Lacka wanna  Creek,  he 
discovered  stone-coal,  with  which  he  had  become  ac- 
quainted in  Western  Virginia  and  on  the  Monongahela  as 
a  surveyor  previous  to  his  location  at  Stockport. 

"  In  the  year  1814,  I  heard  my  father  tell  Maurice  Wurts 
in  Market  Street,  Philadelphia,  '  Maurice,  thee  must  hold 
on  to  that  lot  on  the  Lacka  wanna,  that  you  took  for  debt 
of  David  Nobles,  it  will  be  very  valuable  some  day  as  it 
has  stone-coal  on  it  and  under  it.'  Whether  Maurice  was 
aware  of  that  fact  before,  I  know  not.  The  lot,  however, 
was  liuny  on  to.  Its  location  was  where  Carbondale  now 
stands."  The  next  important  event  connected  with  the 
history  of  the  earliest  coal  operations  in  the  valley,  was 
an  attempt  made  by  Wurts  in  the  year  1815,  to  transport 
the  coal  he  had  mined  at  this  isolated  point,  to  the  Wal- 
lenpaupack  or  some  stream  leading  into  it. 

On  the  opposite  side  of  the  Moosic  Range  in  the  adjoin- 
ing county  of  Wayne,  threads  along  its  base  a  narrow 
creek,  whose  dark  languid  waters  are  so  hid  by  the  rank 
alders  and  iron-like  laurel,  as  to  be  concealed  from  the 

1  Seo  Auburn  "  Daily  Advertiser,"  Jan.  19,  1819. 


LACKAWANNA  VALLEY.  347 

view,  until  its  marshy  border  is  almost  passed.  This  is 
"  Jones's  Creek,"  one  of  the  upper  and  larger  branches  of 
the  Wallenpaupack.  Being  eight  or  nine  miles  only  from 
the  coal-mines  opened  in  Providence,  this  creek,  from  its 
convenient  proximity,  was  selected  as  one  of  ample  capa- 
city, after  the  removal  of  ordinary  obstructions,  to  carry 
light  rafts  and  a  small  quantity  of  anthracite  down  to 
the  Paupack.  The  whole  summer  of  this  year  was  spent 
by  Mr.  Noble  in  clearing  this  stream  of  the  interlocking 
logs  and  drift-wood.  After  a  raft  had  been  lashed 
together,  two  sled-loads  of  the  first  coal  ever  carried  from 
the  Lackawanna,  were  loaded  upon  it. 

A  long,  heavy  rain  had  so  swollen  the  volume  of  water, 
that  when  the  raft  swung  out  into  the  current  with  its 
glistening  freight,  it  ran  safely  for  the  distance  of  nearly 
a  mile,  when,  encountering  a  projecting  rock,  th<3  frail 
float  went  to  pieces,  and  the  coal  sank  into  the  flood. 
Thus  were  the  hopes  of  the  young  Philadelphian  baffled 
at  the  very  onset,  and  the  busy  world  neither  delighted 
nor  grieved  at  the  result. 

The  mind  of  Wurts,  refusing  rest,  allowed  no  transient 
failure  to  alienate  or  defer  the  maturing  of  his  specific 
scheme. 

The  old  Connecticut  road  from  the  Delaware  to  Wyo- 
ming, in  passing  over  Cobb's  Mountain,  came  within  a 
few  miles  of  the  two  mines  opened  by  Wurts.  Over  this, 
to  the  slackened  waters  of  the  Wallenpaupack,  one  of  the 
tributaries  of  the  Lackawaxen,  and  about  twenty  miles 
distant,  coal  was  next  drawn  on  sleds  by  the  slow  ox- 
team.  Here  rafts  were  constructed  from  dry  pine-trees, 
on  which  coal  was  taken  as  far  as  Wilsonville  Falls, 
where  this  stream,  narrowing  to  about  seventy  feet  in 
width  at  the  top,  leaps  over  three  consecutive  ledges  of 
rocks  of  fifty  feet  each  with  singular  force  and  beauty. 
The  coal  being  carried  around  these  falls  upon  wagons  to 
the  eddy  in  the  Lackawaxen,  was  reloaded  into  arks  and 
taken  thence  to  the  Delaware,  and  if  these  were  not  stove 


348  nisToitY  OF  THE 

tip  in  their  downward  passage  readied  Philadelphia, 
where  nobody  wanted  the  "  black  stuff,"  as  all  the  blow- 
ing and  stirring  given  to  it  did  not  make  it  burn. 

But  little  coal,  and  this  at  a  ruinous  expense,  was  taken 
over  this  route,  and  it  being  abandoned  as  a  complete 
failure,  led  to  operations  farther  up  the  valley  in  the  wil- 
derness, in  the  vicinity  of  Rixe's  Gap.  Here  we  next  find 
Maurice  Wurts  associated  with  his  brother  William,  min- 
ing coal  on  the  Lackawanna,  at  the  spot  now  called  Car- 
bondale.  This  was  in  1822,  and  eight  years  before  the 
North  Branch  Canal  was  put  under  contract  from  Nanti- 
coke  to  the  mouth  of  the  Lackawanna.  The  scene  of  their 
operations  was  a  bluff  which  rises  upon  the  western  side 
of  the  town,  then  forming  the  immediate  bank  of  the 
river,  whose  channel  has  since  been  diverted.  Here  these 
determined,  far-seeing  pioneers  in  the  coal-fields  kept  their 
men  at  work  until  late  in  the  fall,  forming  a  sort  of 
encampment  in  the  woods,  sleeping  on  hemlock  boughs 
and  leaves  before  a  large  camp-fire,  and  transporting  their 
provisions  for  miles  upon  horseback.  The  mine  was  kept 
free  from  water  by  a  rude  pumping-apparatus  moved  by 
the  current  of  the  river,  and  when  the  accumulation  of 
ice  upon  it  obstructed  its  movements,  a  large  grate  made 
of  nail-rods  was  put  in  blast,  in  which  a  fire  of  coal  was 
continually  kept  burning  and  removing  the  difficulty.  In 
this  slow  laborious  manner  they  succeeded  at  great  expense 
in  taking  out  about  eight  hundred  tons  of  coal,  which 
they  intended  to  have  drawn  upon  sleds  over  the  'moun- 
tain through  Rixe's  Gap  to  the  Lackawaxen  during  the 
winter,  in  order  to  be  floated  down  the  Delaware  to  Phil- 
adelphia in  the  spring.  The  winter  of  1823  being  unusu- 
ally mild,  snow  remaining  on  the  ground  but  few  weeks 
in  heavy  drifts,  only  about  one  hundred  tons  were  drawn 
over  to  the  rafting-place,  a  distance  of  about  twenty  miles, 
via  Cherry  Ridge. 

Instead  of  arks,  found  to  be  too  expensive  and  easily 
broken  in  their  downward  passage,  dry  pine-trees  were 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  349 

cut,  rolled  into  the  stream,  and  lashed  together  raft-like, 
upon  which  as  much  coal  was  deposited  as  would  safely 
float,  and  thus  taken  down  the  Lackawaxen  and  Dela- 
ware to  Philadelphia. 

The  price  of  anthracite  coal  in  this  city  at  this  time  was 
but  ten  or  twelve  dollars  per  ton.  At  these  figures  it  was 
estimated  that  a  remunerative  profit  awaited  coal  trans- 
ported in  this  manner,  or  even  in  the  unreliable  ark, 
provided  the  navigation  of  the  Lackawaxen  was  made 
safe  by  practical  slack- water  improvements. 

In  1823,  Maurice  Wurts  was  authorized  and  empowered 
by  the  Legislature  of  Pennsylvania  thus  to  improve  the 
navigation  of  this  short,  wild  stream.  In  the  mean  time, 
the  supply  of  coal  from  the  Schuylkill  and  Lehigh 
regions,  small  as  it  was,  had  so  reduced  the  price  as  to 
preclude  any  hope  of  a  profit  such  as  would  justify  the 
expenditure,  unless  a  new  and  better  market  could  first 
be  found  or  created. 

The  demand  for  coal  at  this  time  can  be  perceived  from 
the  fact,  that  during  the  entire  year  of  1820,  only  365  tons 
of  anthracite  were  sent  to  market — just  one  ton  a  day 
to  supply  every  demand  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia. 

In  1823,  only  6,000  tons  of  anthracite  were  carried  to 
the  sea-board  in  the  whole  United  States,  being  consid- 
erably less  than  the  amount  now  used  in  the  Lacka wanna 
Valley  every  day  in  the  year. 

New  York  and  the  Lacka  wanna  Valley,  linked  together 
by  the  social  chain  of  canal,  railroad,  and  river,  mutually 
dependent  upon  each  other,  knew  no  interest  in  common 
until  schooled  by  the  active  and  persistent  agency  of  the 
Wurtses.  The  original  plan  of  looking  to  Philadelphia  for 
a  source  of  revenue  being  frustrated  by  the  reduced  price 
of  coal,  Maurice  Wurts,  in  whom  the  privilege  of  im- 
proving the  navigation  of  the  Lackawaxen  was  vested, 
and  who  had  now  become  largely  interested  in  the  enter- 
prise, conceived  the  project  of  reaching  New  York  by  a 
direct  canal  communication  between  the  Delaware  and 


350  HISTORY    OF    THE 

Hudson  rivers.  "With  the  hope  of  accomplishing  this 
object,  the  exploration  of  the  route  on  which  the  Dela- 
ware and  Hudson  Canal  has  since  been  constructed,  was 
undertaken  by  William  Wurts  alone ;  and,  after  such  a 
superficial  inspection  as  he  could  give  it  without  an  actual 
survey,  he  concluded  that  the  favorable  character  of  the 
ground,  especially  through  southern  New  York,  and  the 
abundant  supply  of  water-power  at  the  very  beginning  of 
the  route,  would  justify  the  prosecution  of  the  enterprise. 

The  project  of  connecting  the  two  localities  by  a  water 
communication,  favored  and  understood  by  few,  received 
a  primary  and  definite  form,  and  although  there  seemed 
to  have  been  no  just  appreciation  of  the  difficulties  to  be 
surmounted,  or  the  physical  labor  and  expense  incurred 
in  maturing  a  scheme  full  of  advantage  and  traffic  to  the 
valley,  these  two  gentlemen  determined  to  lend  all  their 
energies  to  its  completion. 

The  needful  legislation  from  the  respective  States  of 
Pennsylvania  and  New  York  was  obtained  by  their 
unaided  efforts,  and  after  an  abortive  attempt  to  interest 
residents  upon  the  route,  or  those  living  in  the  valley, 
so  as  to  obtain  a  general  fund  for  the  preliminary  survey, 
they  engaged  Benjamin  Wright,  then  the  most  experienced 
engineer  in  the  country,  to  make  the  necessary  surveys 
and  estimate  at  their  own  expense. 

The  report  of  the  engineer,  made  in  1824,  confirmed 
the  most  sanguine  calculations  of  the  projectors  as  to 
the  practicability  of  the  work  ;  but  the  estimate  of  its 
cost  (81,300,000)  was  discouraging,  and  to  obtain  sub- 
scriptions for  such  an  amount  of  money,  at  that  time, 
for  such  a  work,  seemed  almost  hopeless.  Capitalists 
naturally  viewed  with  distrust  a  proposition  to  construct 
a  railroad  over  a  mountain,  whose  cliffs  seemed  to  exult 
over  physical  ingenuity  and  science  ;  and  when  these 
energetic  men  began  to  talk  of  opening  a  canal  navi- 
gation through  an  unknown  region,  at  a  period,  too, 
when  such  undertakings  were  regarded,  even  under  the 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  351 

most  favorable  circumstance?,  as  unremunerative  and  of 
doubtful  propriety,  many  persons,  representing  the  current 
of  popular  thought,  unconscious  of  the  celebrity  awaiting 
these  gentlemen  for  their  good  judgment  and  cheerful 
perseverance,  were  active  and  clamorous  in  predicting 
ruin  and  dishonor. 

Happily  for  the  interests  of  the  country  at  large  and 
the  valley  especially,  the  inflexible  men,  inured  to  fatigue 
and  encampment  upon  rocks,  who  had  glowed  with  the 
hope  of  bearing  the  work  across  the  country  dividing  the 
Hudson  from  the  shallow  Dyberry,  inherited  the  requisite 
force  and  ability  to  urge  it  to  a  favorable  issue.  They 
recognized  no  opposition  from  any  quarter.  Conscious 
that  a  failure  would  compromise  forever  their  positions 
as  business  men,  and  number  their  names  among  dis- 
honest schemers,  they  concentrated  every  available  re- 
source to  foster  and  advance  the  great  enterprise. 

Their  plans,  considered  after  repeated  tramps  over  the 
mountain,  was  to  cross  the  Moosic  by  inclined  planes, 
connecting  the  railroad  with  the  canal  on  its  eastern  side, 
at  the  greatest  elevation  at  which  water  could  be  obtained 
from  the  natural  ponds  strung  along  the  western  terminus 
of  the  route.1 

Almost  on  the  very  summit  of  the  Moosic,  nestles 
among  the  spruce  and  oak  one  of  the  loveliest  sheets  of 
water  found  anywhere  in  the  country,  known  as  "  Cobb's 
Mountain  Pond."  Around  it  gathers  the  forest,  nowhere 
broken  by  a  clearing,  and  aside  from  the  light  step  of  the 
deer  upon  the  margin,  or  the  sail  of  the  wild  bird  over 
its  surface,  no  evidence  of  animated  nature  appears. 

Upon  one  side  of  the  pond,  the  waters  are  so  shallow 

1  It  may  be  interesting  to  the  local  reader  to  learn,  that  in  the  original  survey  of 
the  proposed  route,  the  western  terminus  of  the  canal  was  to  be  at  Keene's,  or 
Hoadley's  Pond,  in  Wayne  County,  a  distance  of  only  four  or  five  miles  from  the 
coal-fields.  These  ponds,  estimated  at  a  capacity  of  sixty  acres,  when  united, 
were  to  be  cpnverted  into  reservoirs,  and  were  supposed  to  be  capable  of  fur- 
nishing the  contemplated  canal  with  the  necessary  supply  of  water  at  any  extra- 
ordinary drought  brought  by  summer. 


352  HISTOKY    OF    THE 

that  the  touiist  can  wade  hundreds  of  feet  toward  its 
center,  over  white  sand,  without  even  wetting  the  knee, 
while  the  northern  side  sends  its  bank  down  almost  per- 
pendicular for  a  great  distance.  In  the  center  of  this 
waveless  sheet  there  exists  a  perceptible  movement  of 
the  water  or  mimic  maelstrom,  able  to  swing  around  a  log- 
canoe.  The  pond,  fed  by  unseen  springs,  finds  a  con- 
siderable outlet,  and  forms  the  upper  tributary  of  the 
Wallenpaupack.  The  idea  was  early  entertained  by 
William  Wurts  of  bringing  coal  to  this  pond,  some  seven 
miles  from  Providence,  using  it  as  the  highest  reservoir 
for  the  canal.  To  carry  out  this  plan,  it  was  proposed 
that  subscriptions  should  be  opened  for  a  capital  stock 
of  $1,500,000,  and  the  Delaware  and  Hudson  Canal  and 
Banking  Company  be  organized. 

The  undertaking  was  greatly  in  advance  of  the  knowl- 
edge and  comprehension  of  the  day,  and  yet  so  lucid  and 
convincing  were  the  arguments  of  Maurice  arid  William 
Wurts  in  relation  to  the  coal  subject,  that  when  the  books 
were  opened  in  New  York  the  subscriptions  exceeded  the 
amount  authorized  by  the  charter. 

While  wiser  men  were  thus  interpreting  the  wants  of 
the  world,  by  opening  a  way  into  the  Lackawanna 
Mountains,  the  great  popular  mind  had  given  little  dis- 
cussion to  the  theme.  In  fact,  the  first  element  of  making 
coal-fires  had  to  be  taught  in  New  York  in  the  same  spirit 
of  Christian  liberality  and  patience  given  to  Philadelphia 
by  Messrs.  Miner,  Wurts,  and  others,  a  few  years  before. 

A  few  persons,  spurning  pupilage  in  so  plain  an  affair 
as  making  a  fire,  failing  to  secure  heat  by  putting  the 
coal  in  the  bottom  of  the  stove  and  the  w<9od  on  lop, 
refused  to  have  further  dealing  with  the  dusky  invention. 

Stoves  and  grates,  adapted  to  the  use  of  anthracite  coal, 
being  put  up  in  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Albany, 
by  the  agency  of  these  earnest  gentlemen,  not  only  demon- 
strated to  the  observer  the  great  superiority  of  anthra- 
cite over  charcoal  and  wood  as  a  fuel,  but,  in  spite  of  strong 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  353 

natural  prejudices  arrayed  against  the  project,  it  found 
among  reflecting  minds  a  steady  growth  and  advocacy. 

The  canal,  commenced  in  1826,  was  completed  in  1828. 
Originally  constructed  for  boats  of  thirty  tons,  it  subse- 
quently was  enlarged  for  those  of  fifty  tons,  and  within 
the  past  few  years  has  again  been  so  altered  and  improved 
as  to  admit  boats  of  one  hundred  and  thirty  tons.  The 
arrangements  of  this  company  have  been  judiciously 
made  at  different  points,  such  as  Carbondale,  Honesdale, 
Olyphant,  Providence,  &c.,  for  the  accommodation  of  an 
extensive  business.  Their  capital  now  exceeds  fifteen 
millions  of  dollars. 

To  show  how  far  the  results  of  this  pioneer  enterprise 
from  the  valley  have  transcended  the  narrow  views  of  the 
community  of  that  recent  period,  both  with  regard  to  its 
capabilities  and  the  use  of  coal,  it  may  be  stated,  that 
the  idea  of  transporting  one  hundred  thousand  tons  of 
coal  per  annum  over  the  railroad  and  canal  (upon  which 
idea  the  capacity  of  the  former  was  at  first  based)  was 
at  first  scouted  by  many  as  preposterous,  as  regarding 
both  the  disposal  of,  and  the  ability  to  deliver,  such  an 
unheard-of  amount,  whereas,  during  the  last  year  (1868), 
there  was  transported  over  this  highway,  by  the  Dela- 
ware and  Hudson  Canal  Company,  nearly  two  million 
tons  of  coal. * 

When  this  young  enterprise  was  struggling  its  way 
into  popular  favor,  equipoised  between  extermination 
and  a  possible  triumph,  it  did  not  escape  the  jealousy  of 
men  engaged  in  transporting  coal  from  the  Lehigh.  The 
product  of  the  mines  had  to  force  itself  into  a  market  over 
the  heads  of  gnvious  and  crafty  competitors. 

Unfortunately  for  the  company,  the  small  quantity  of 
coal  taken  to  New  York  from  the  coal-pits  at  Carbondale, 
in  1829,  being  surface  coal  that  had  lain  for  ages  exposed 
to  the  action  of  the  elements,  furnished  plausible  grounds 

1  1,840,681.06  tons. 
23 


354 


HISTORY    OF    THE 


apparently  for  the  statements  of  rival  companies,  that  the 
Lackawanna  coal  offered  by  the  Wurtses  was  quite  value- 
less, or  if  otherwise,  it  was  boldly  asserted  that  the  works 
of  this  company  were  so  imperfect  in  their  construction, 
and  so  perishable  in  character,  as  not  to  be  capable  of 
passing  a  sufficient  amount  of  tonnage  to  pay  interest 
upon  the  original  cost. 

Indeed,  to  those  who  looked  searchingly  into  the  mat- 
ter, with  the  imperfect  knowledge  possessed  at  that  day, 
the  Moosic  Mountain  range  might  well  have  proved  a 
great  stumbling-block  in  the  way  of  this  artificial  outlet 
to  the  valley.  Habit  has  now  so  familiarized  us  with  the 
triumph  of  physical  science  over  natural  obstacles,  that 
we  have  ceased  to  feel  or  express  astonishment  at'  results, 
which  at  that  day  were  dismissed  from  the  consideration 
of  rational  men  as  visionary,  foolish,  and  forbidding.  The 
mode  of  overcoming  elevations  by  means  of  inclined 
planes  was  then  almost  untried,  imperfectly  known,  and 
little  appreciated.  The  works  at  Rixe's  Gap  were  the 
first  of  this  kind  projected  in  this  country  on  any  con- 
siderable scale.  Much  credit  is  due  to  the  engineers 
having  charge  of  these  works,  and  especially  to  Mr. 
James  Archibald,  for  many  ingenious  and  highly  efficient 
contrivances  connected  with  them. 

There  is  one  interesting  feature  connected  with  the  early 


F1BST    LOCOMOTIVE    RUN    IN    AMERICA. 


LAOKAWANNA   VALLEY.  355 

history  of  this  road.  The  first  locomotive  engine  intro- 
duced and  worked  in  America  was  run  a  short  distance  upon 
it  in  1828,  and  Hone's  Dale1  offered  its  friendly  glen  for  the 
purpose  of  conducting  the  experiment.  This  locomotive, 
called  the  "  Stourbridge  Lion,"  was  built  in  England,  of 
the  best  workmanship  and  material,  and  most  approved 
pattern  of  that  date.  As  compared  with  the  powerful, 
compact,  and  simply  constructed  engines  of  the  present 
day,  it  was  complicated,  unwieldy,  top-heavy,  and  of 
inconsiderable  power,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  accompany- 
ing illustration,  copied  from  an  exact  drawing  of  the 
original, -in  the  hands  of  R.  Manville,  Esq.,  Superintend- 
ent of  the  Railroad  Department. 

The  village  of  Honesdale,  the  eastern  terminus  of  the 
railroad  and  the  western  of  the  canal,  lies  snugly  in  the 
bottom  of  a  canal- like  intervale,  where,  a  single  week 
before  the  conception  of  these  works,  rose  one  dark  mass 
of  laurel  and  hemlock,  through  which  the  Lackawaxen, 
once  famous  for  trout-fishing,  after  meeting  with  the 
Dy berry,  gropes  silently  along  under  Irving' s  Cliff. 

The  road  passed  out  of  Honesdale  by  a  sharp  south- 
westerly curve,  with  a  moderate  grade,  and  was  carried 
over  the  Lackawaxen  by  a  long  hemlock  trestling, 
considered  too  frail  by  many  to  support  the  great  weight 
of  the  mysterious-looking  engine  all  ready  for  the  hazard- 
ous journey.  As  the  crowd,  gathered  from  far  and  near, 
expected  that  bridge,  locomotive,  and  all,  would  plunge 
into  the  stream  the  moment  passage  was  attempted,  no 
one  dared  to  run  the  locomotive  across  the  chasm  but 
Major  Horatio  Allen,  who,  amid  exultation  and  praise, 
passed  over. the  bridge  and  a  portion  of  the  road  in  safety. 
The  engine,  however,  was  soon  abandoned,  as  the  slender 
trestling,  forming  much  of  the  body  of  the  road,  suf- 
ficiently strong  for  ordinary  cars,  was  found  too  feeble 
for  its  weight  and  wear. 

1  Named  from  the  late  Philip  Hone. 


356  HISTORY   OF   THE 

Major  Horatio  Allen,  the  engineer  of  the  New  York  and 
Erie  Railroad,  gives  the  following  account  of  the  first  trip 
made  by  a  locomotive  on  this  continent  :— 

"When  was  it?  Who  was  it?  And  who  awakened 
its  energies  and  directed  its  movements  ?  It  was  in  the 
year  1828,  on  the  banks  of  the  Lackawaxen,  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  railroads  connecting  the  canal  of  the 
Delaware  and  Hudson  Canal  Company  with  their  coal 
mines — and  he  who  addresses  you  was  the  only  person 
on  that  locomotive.  The  circumstances  which  led  to  my 
being  alone  on  the  road  were  these  :  The  road  had  been 
built  in  the  summer  ;  the  structure  was  of  hemlock  timber, 
and  rails  of  large  dimensions  notched  on  caps  placed  far 
apart.  The  timber  had  cracked  and  warped  from  expos- 
ure to  the  sun.  After  about  three  hundred  feet  of  straight 
line,  the  road  crossing  the  Laxa  waxen  Creek  on  trestle-work 
about  thirty  feet  high,  with  a  curve  of  three  hundred  and 
fifty-five  to  four  hundred  feet  radius.  The  impression 
was  very  general  that  the  iron  monster  would  either  break 
down  the  road,  or  it  would  leave  the  track  at  the  curve 
and  plunge  into  the  creek. 

"My  reply  to  such  apprehensions  was  that  it  was  too 
late  to  consider  the  probability  of  such  occurrences  ; 
there  was  no  other  course  than  to  have  a  trial  made  of  the 
strange  animal  which  had  been  brought  here  at  a  great 
expense  ;  but  that  it  was  not  necessary  that  more  than 
one  should  be  involved  in  its  fate  ;  that  I  would  take  the 
first  ride  alone,  and  the  time  would  come  when  I  should 
look  back  to  the  incident  with  great  interest. 

"As  I  placed  my  hand  on  the  throttle-valve  handle,  I 
was  undecided  whether  I  would  move  slowly  or  with  a 
fair  degree  of  speed ;  but  believing  that  the  road  would 
prove  safe,  and  preferring,  if  we  did  go  down,  to  go  hand- 
somely, and  without  any  evidence  of  timidity,  I  started 
with  considerable  velocity,  passed  the  curve  over  the 
creek  safely,  and  was  soon  out  of  hearing  of  the  vast 
assemblage.  At  the  end  of  two  or  three  miles  I  reversed 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  357 

the  valve  and  returned  without  accident,  having  thus 
made  the  first  railroad  trip  by  locomotive  on  the  west- 
ern hemisphere." 

This  primitive  machine  was  finally  switched  off  the  track, 
a  house  built  over  it,  and  instead  of  being  treasured  as  a 
relic  of  early  engineering  in  ttye  New  World  surpassed  by 
no  other,  its  rusted  combination  was  partially  destroyed 
and  scattered,  quarter  of  a  century  ago.  Some  portions 
of  it  are  yet  in  use  in  Carbondale. 

It  might  have  been  supposed  by  intelligent  men,  that 
after  the  authors  of  this  canal  and  railroad  had  shown 
their  operations  to  be  practical  and  effective,  when  by 
vast  expenditure  of  means,  time,  and  labor,  the  most 
exhausting,  their  enterprise  was  completed,  their  physical 
efforts  and  mental  anxieties  would  have  been  rewarded 
with  respite  and  profit :  subsequent  events  assured  them 
that  their  labors  had  just  begun.  The  cost  of  these 
improvements  had  far  exceeded  the  original  estimate,  and 
a  large  debt  had  thus  been  necessarily  contracted  in  their 
progress.  The  market  for  coal  was  so  limited  that  a  small 
amount  supplied  the  demand,  and  if  it  did  not  forbode 
the  disruption  of  the  company,  it  alienated  all  hope  of 
immediate  gain  or  dividend.  Before  the  resources  of  the 
company  were  developed,  financial  difficulties  accumu- 
lated. More  than  this,  the  cry  of  monopoly  was  arrayed 
against  it,  at  a  time  when  the  shares,  first  costing  $100 
each,  had  been  six  or  seven  years  on  the  hands  of  the 
stockholders  without  yielding  a  single  dividend,  and  had 
therefore,  in  effect,  cost  about  $140  per  share,  could 
actually  be  bought  in  the  market  at  the  time  for  about 
$48  to  $50  per  share,  or  half  what  it  had  already  cost. 

The  Wurts  brothers,  undaunted  by  these  adverse  aus- 
pices, abated  none  of  their  confidence  in  a  cause  whose 
fate  involved  their  own  integrity  as  well  as  the  interest  of 
every  valley  tenant,  taught  by  the  narrow-minded  to  dis- 
trust and  oppdse  its  success.  Maurice  Wurts  (who  had 
superintended  the  canal  during  its  construction,  and 


358  HISTORY    OF    THE 

resigned  his  office  when  it  was  completed)  undertook,  in 
this  exigency,  the  superintendence  of  an  important  depart- 
ment of  the  company's  business,  while  his  brother  John, 
then  a  prominent  member  of  Congress,  of  the  Philadel- 
phia bar,  assumed  the  presidency.  These  gentlemen 
devoted  their  lives  to  promote  and  vindicate  the  material 
interests  of  the  company,  and  the  proud,  high,  firm  posi- 
tion it  has  attained  to-day,  is  much,  if  not  mainly  due  to 
the  constant  care  and  industry  with  which  its  affairs,  dur- 
ing a  long  series  of  years,  sometimes  hostile,  were -con- 
ducted by  them.  This  was  done  in  such  a  broad  spirit  of 
fidelity  to  the  entire  associated  interests,  that  no  charge 
of  self-aggrandizement  or  greedy  selfishness  emanated 
from  the  most  capricious. 

Not  only  was  the  very  existence  of  the  company  imper- 
iled by  financial  dangers  formidable  in  their  character, 
but  legislative  bodies,  moved  by  the  leverage  of  personal 
jealousies  and  fancied  rivalry,  labored  to  crush  it,  and 
this  too,  at  the  instigation  of  men  whose  private  fortunes 
and  social  positions  in  life,  came  wholly  from  the  opera- 
tions they  were  seeking  to  arrest  and  destroy.  The  bene- 
fits which  have  arisen  out  of  this  undertaking,  the  general 
and  generating  influences  it  has  exerted  in  the  Lacka- 
wanna  Valley,  are  various  in  kind  and  character,  and  are 
diffused  over  a  wide  region  of  country,  as  well  as  concen- 
trated in  special  localities.  Prominent  among  these  special 
localities,  may  be  named  New  York  City,  and  the  Lacka- 
wanna  Valley.  Who  can  estimate  the  magnitude  of  the 
impulse  which  the  introduction  of  cheap  fuel  has  given 
to  the  growth  of  New  York  ?  To  this  great  outlet,  con- 
ceived and  matured  by  Maurice  and  William  Wurts,  is 
this  great  city  indebted  for  the  cheapening  and  supply 
of  this  desirable  and  indispensable  fuel.  The  history  of 
the  company  struggling  for  many  years  through  appalling 
difficulties,  indicates  that  even  here,  neither  the  benefits 
nor  instrumentality  by  which  it  was  attained,  were  appre- 
ciated by  the  many  recipients.  But  no  estimate  can  be 


LACKAWANNA   VALLKY.  359 

made  of  the  power  which  a  work  like  this  exercises  over 
the  affairs  of  a  nation,  in  encouraging  private  and  stim- 
ulating public  efforts  for  internal  improvements.  The 
material  benefits  thus  conferred  upon  the  valley,  in  the 
highest  degree  advantageous  and  practical  to  the  expand- 
ing activities  east  of  the  Alleghanies,  can  be  estimated 
readily  b}7  simply  comparing  the  average  value  of  coal 
land  and  property  now  and  before  the  maturity  of  this 
enterprise.  The  entire  length  of  the  canal,  including 
three  miles  of  slack- water  navigation,  is  111  miles  •  the 
railroad  from  Honesdale  to  Providence,  thirty-two  miles. 

This  road,  with  but  a  single  exception,  the  oldest  in  the 
country,  represents  more  wealth,  for  one  of  its  length, 
than  any  other  one  in  America. 

During  the  last  year  the  company  have  entered  into 
arrangements  with  the  Baltimore  Coal  and  Union  Railroad 
Company,  whereby  they  control  the  railroad  from  Provi- 
dence to  the  Baltimore  mines,  near  Wilkes  Barre,  together 
with  the  mines  upon  that  justly  celebrated  property. 

They  have  also  completed  an  arrangement  with  the 
Northern  Coal  and  Iron  Company,  for  the  coal  in  the 
property,  recently  purchased  by  the  latter  company  of 
the  Plymouth  and  Boston  companies.  This  property 
is  located  on  the  west  side  of  the  Susquehanna,  in  Ply- 
mouth, and  is  considered  to  be  one  of  the  most  valuable 
properties  in  Wyoming  Valley. 

The  canal  company  also  control  the  railroad  and  bridge 
of  the  Plymouth  and  Wilkes  Barre  Railroad  and  Bridge 
Company,  which  connects  the  property  upon  the  west 
side  of  the  river  with  the  system  of  railroads  upon  the 
east  side. 

These  alliances,  with  other  recent  acquisitions,  give  the 
canal  company  a  position  from  which  it  can  ship  coal  in 
all  directions,  and  place  it  in  the  front  rank  of  the  great 
coal  corporations  of  the  country.1 

1  Statement  of  Coal  mined  and  forwarded  by  the  Delaware  and  Hudson  Canal 


SCO  HISTORY    OF    THE 

The  Delaware  and  Hudson  Canal  Company,  preserving 
the  same  wise  policy  inaugurated  by  William  and  Maurice 
Wurts,  of  giving  great  discretionary  power  to  their  officers 
at  the  primary  or  mining  end  of  the  line,  have  prospered 
beyond  expectation  or  measure  under  the  judicious  man- 
agement of  Thomas  Dickson,  vice-president  of  .the  road, 
and  his  able  assistant  managers,  E.  W.  Western,  R. 
Manville,  and  C.  F.  Young. 

George  T.  Olyphant,  of  New  York,  is  now  the  presi- 
dent of  this  company ;  its  vast  interest  in  the  Wyoming 

Company  for  the  year  ending  December  10,   1868,  with  sources  whence  re- 
ceived:— 

SENT   NORTH. 

Delaware  and  Hudson  Canal  Company's  Mines. 

Carbondale 330,770  12 

Grassy  Island 97,724  14 

Olyphant 294,011  19 

Providence 316,301  0-1 


1,038,838  09 
Contractor's  Mines. 

John  Jermyn 171,298  10 

Eaton  &  Co 141,418  10 

B.  &  L.  C.  Co 95,182  1.'! 

Klk  Hill  Coal  Co 62,753  01 

Filer  &  Co 1 2,347   1 7 

Mineral  Spring  Coal  Co  541  04 


483,541   18 
Baltimore  Coal  and  Union  Railroad  Company's  Mines. 

Mill  Creek 111,722  0 i 

Baltimore 53,770  09 

165.492   13 


Total 1,687,873  00 

SENT   SOUTH. 

Baltimore  Coal  and  Union  Ii'ailroad  Company's  Mines. 
Mill  Creek  and  Baltimore  Mines 152,808  06 


Total  production  for  1868 *1, 840,681  06 

Total  production  for  1867 1,468,314  10 


Increased  production  for  1 868 372,366  16 

*or  2,061,565  tons  of  2,000  pounds. 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  363 

and  Lackawanna  valleys,  however,  come  under  the  juris- 
diction of  Thomas  Dickson,  of  Scranton.  The  village  of 
Olyphant  derived  its  name  from  one,  while  the  young 
mining  town  of  Dickson  received  its  appellation  from  the 
other.  With  a  clear  head  and  a  disposition  to  turn  hard 
work  to  some  account,  Thos.  Dickson  came  from  Scotland, 
quarter  of  a  century  ago,  to  try  his  fortune  in  the  mountain 
ranges  of  Pennsylvania.  Although  not  "to  the  manor 
born,"  he  has,  by  the  aid  of  a  practical  turn  of  mind  and 
steady  habits,  made  his  way  from  the  humble  place  of  a 
mule-driver,  in  the  Carbondale  mines,  to  the  honorable 
position  he  now  occupies,  with  a  rapidity  and  steadiness 
almost  romantic — thus  presenting  to  the  young  men  of 
the  country  an  illustration  of  the  triumphs  of  a  life  of 

probity  and  ambitious  industry  worthy  of  emulation. 

•  / 

FALLING  OF  THE  CARBONDALE  MINES. 

Those  who  have  never  entered  the  midnight  chambers 
of  a  coal-mine,  far  away  in  the  earth,  where  no  sound  is 
heard  but  the  miner's  drill  or  the  report  of  a  blast  in 
some  remote  gallery,  and  no  light  ever  enters  but  the 
lamps  on  the  workmen's  caps,  which  are  seen  moving 
about  like  will-o'-the-wisps  as  the  men  are  mining  or 
loading  the  coal  into  little  cars,  can  not  understand  how 
perilous  the  miner's  occupation,  or  how  much  the  place 
he  works  in  reminds  one  of  the  great  pit  itself,  only  this, 
in  the  language  of  the  miner,  is  free  from  "  the  Jiate  of 
summer."  Some  of  the  mines  are  mere  low,  jet-black 
coal-holes,  gloomy  as  the  tombs  of  Thebes,  while  others 
have  halls  and  chambers  of  cyclopean  proportions,  along 
which  are  constant  openings  into  cross-chambers  or  gal- 
leries, some  sloping  downward,  some  upward,  in  which 
roll  along  cars,  drawn  by  mules,  accompanied  by  a  boy 
as  driver.  Accidents  not  unfrequently  happen  in  the 
mines,  by  the  explosion  of  powder,  as  the  lamps  are 
continually  around  it  ;  by  the  falling  of  slate  or  coal, 


364  HISTORY  OF  TIIK 

before  props  are  placed  to  support  the  treacherous  roof ; 
and  sometimes  by  the  falling  in  of  the  mines  themselves. 
After  all  the  coal  is  taken  from  one  stratum  or  vein,  miners 
frequently  remove  the  pillars  or  props  from  the  cham- 
bers, so  that  the  mines  can  fill  in — this,  in  miner's 
language,  is  called  "  robbing  the  mines." 

During  the  winter  of  1843  and  '44,  a  portion  of  the 
Delaware  and  Hudson  Canal  Company's  mines,  at  Car- 
bondale,  "fell  in"  upon  the  workmen.  Some  days 
previous  to  the  final  crash,  the  mine,  in  the  phrase  of 
miners,  began  to  "work,"  that  is,  the  occasional  cracking 
of  the  roof  over  where  the  men  worked,  denoted  the 
danger  of  a  fall.  It  came,  and  such  was  its  force  that  all 
the  lights  in  the  mines  were  extinguished  in  an  instant, 
while  the  workmen  and  horses,  which  were  entering  or 
retiring  from  the  black  mouth  of  the  cavern,  were  blown 
from  it  as  leaves  are  swept  by' the  gale.  The  men  who 
were  at  work  in  their  narrow  chambers  farther  in  the 
mine,  heard  the  loud  death-summons,  and  felt  the  crash 
of  the  earthquaked  elements,  as  they  were  buried  alive 
and  crushed  in  the  strong,  black  teeth  of  the  coal-slate. 

One  of  the  assistant  superintendents  of  the  mines,  Mr. 
Alexander  Bryden.  was  on  the  outside  at  the  time  the 
low,  deep  thundering  of  the  rocks  within  came  upon  his 
ear.  He  hastened  in  to  ascertain  the  cause  of  the  disaster 
or  the  extent  of  the  fall.  Penetrating  one  of  the  dark 
galleries  a  short  distance,  he  was  met  by  three  miners, 
who  informed  him  that  the  mines  had  broken,  killing  and 
wounding  many,  and  that  they  had  just  left  behind  them 
about  twenty  men,  who  were  probably  slain  by  the 
crushing  slate.  Although  urged  by  the  retreating  men 
to  turn  back  and  save  his  own  life,  as  there  was  no  hope 
of  rescuing  their  companions  from  death,  the  determined 
Scotchman  pushed  along  the  gloomy  passage,  amid  the 
loosened  and  hissing  rock,  which,  like  the  sword  of  the 
ancient  tyrant,  hung  over  his  head.  He  reached  the  edge 
of  the  fall.  Earth  and  coal  lay  in  vast  masses  around 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  365 

him,  and  here  and  there  a  body  becoming  detached  from 
the  parent  roof,  came  down  with  sullen  echo  into  the 
Egyptian  darkness  of  the  mines.  Bryden,  inured  to  danger 
from  his  youth,  was  not  deterred.  The  dim  light  from  his 
lamp  revealed  no  passage,  save  a  small  opening  made  by 
the  huge  slabs,  falling  in  such  a  manner  by  the  side  of 
the  floor  of  the  gallery  as  to  form  an  angle.  Through  this 
aperture  he  crept  upon  his  hands  and  knees  ;  as  he  pro- 
ceeded he  found  it  so  narrow  that  he  was  barely  able  to 
force  himself  along  by  lying  prostrate  upon  his  abdomen. 

About  one  mile  from  the  mouth  of  the  mines  he  reached 
the  "heading,"  or  the  end  of  the  chamber,  where  he 
found  the  twenty  imprisoned  miners  uninjured,  and 
inclosed  in  one  fallen,  black,  solid  body  of  coal !  On€ 
mile  of  wall  between  them  and  the  outer  world  !  The 
brave  Scotchman,  whose  lips  whitened  not  until  now, 
wept  like  a  child,  as  he  found  among  the  number  his  own 
son !  The  boy  had  the  genius  of  the  father.  When  one 
of  the  three  retreating  fugitives  who  had  escaped  from 
the  mine  proposed,  as  they  left,  to  take  away  the  horse 
confined  here  with  the  workmen,  young  Bryden,  who 
feared  the  torture  of  starvation  in  that  foodless  cell, 
replied,  "  Leave  him  here  ;  we  shall  need  him !" 

Bryden  was  upon  the  point  of  leading  out  his  men  when 
he  learned  that  another  lay  helplessly  wounded,  still  far- 
ther beyond  this  point,  in  the  most  dangerous  part  of  the 
fall.  On  he  continued  his  perilous  mission  until  he  enter- 
ed the  lonely  chamber.  A  feeble  cry  from  the  miner,  who 
was  aroused  from  his  bed  of  slate  by  the  glimmer  of  the 
approaching  light,  revealed  a  picture  of  the  miner's  life 
too  familiar  with  the  men  who  face  danger  in  these  cleft 
battle-grounds.  Almost  covered  by  the  fallen  strata,  he 
lay  half  delirious  with  agony,  blackened  with  coal-dirt, 
and  limbs  gashed  and  fractured  with  rock.  Lifting  the 
wounded  man  upon  his  shoulder,  Bryden  retraced  his 
steps.  For  rods  he  bore  him  along,  with  the  broken, 
flaccid  arms  of  the  miner  dangling  at  his  side. 


366  HISTORY    OF    THE 

When  the  rock  was  too  low  to  permit  this,  he  first 
crawled  along  the  cavern  himself,  drawing  his  companion 
carefully  after  him.  Through  perils  which  none  can 
appreciate  who  have  not  strode  along  the  gloomy  gal- 
leries of  a  coal-mine,  he  "bore  him  full  one  mile  before  he 
reached  the  living  world. 

The  fall  extended  over  an  area  of  about  forty  acres,  and 
although  neither  effort  nor  expense  were  withheld  by  the 
company  or  individuals,  to  rescue  the  living,  or  to  re- 
cover the  bodies  of  the  dead,  the  remains  of  a  few  have 
never  yet  been  found.  One  man  was  discovered  some 
time  afterward  in  a  standing  position,  his  pick  and  his 
dinner-pail  bearing  him  company,  while  the  greater  por- 
tion of  the  flesh  upon  his  bones  appeared  to  have  been 
eaten  off  by  rats. 

Others,  without  water,  food,  or  light,  shut  in  from  the 
world  forever  by  the  appalling  wall  of  rock,  coal,  and 
slate  around  them,  while  breathing  the  scanty  air,  and 
suffering  in  body  and  mind,  agony  the  most  intense, 
clinched  tighter  their  picks,  and  wildly  labored  one  long 
night  that  knew  no  day,  until  exhausted  they  sank,  and 
died  in  the  darkness  of  their  rocky  sepulchers,  with  no 
sweet  voice  to  soothe — no  kind  angel  to  cool  the  burning 
temples,  or  catch  the  whispers  from  the  spirit-land. 

Eight  d^ad  bodies  were  exhumed,  and  six  were  left  in 
—one,  the  only  son  of  a  dependent  widow.  Mr.  Hosie, 
one  of  the  assistant  superintendents  of  the  mines,  was  in 
them  at  the  time  of  the  disaster,  and  escaped  with  his 
life.  Creeping  through  the  remaining  crevices  in  the 
break  upon  his  hands  and  knees,  feeling  his  way  along  the 
blackness  of  midnight,  where  all  traces  of  the  general 
direction  of  the  mine  had  disappeared,  he  often  found 
himself  in  an  aperture  so  narrow,  that  to  retreat  or  advance 
seemed  impossible.  Once  he  was  buried  middle-deep  by 
the  rubbish  iis  he  was  digging  through.  Another  convul- 
sion lifted  up  the  mass  and  relieved  him.  After  being 
in  the  mines  two  days  and  nights,  he  emerged  into  sun- 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  367 

light,  the  flesh  being  worn  from  his  finger-bones  in  his 
efforts  to  escape  from  the  tomb-like  captivity. 

EARLIEST  MAIL  BOUTE   IN  THE   VALLEY. 

When  the  first  and  only  post-office  was  established  in 
the  Lackawanna  Valley  in  1811,  the  mail  was  carried  once 
a  week  on  horseback  from  Wilkes  Barre,  ma  Capoose  or 
Slocum  Hollow,  to  Wilsonville,  the  original  shire  town  of 
Wayne  County,  at  the  head  of  the  Wallenpaupack  Falls, 
returning  ma  Bethany,  Belmont,  Montrose,  and  Tunkhan- 
nock.  In  1762,  or  fifty  years  previous  to  this,  the  Rev. 
David  Zisberger,  sheltered  only  by  trees  and  friendly  wig- 
wams, made  his  way  along  the  Indian  pathway,  from  Fort 
Stanwix,  New  York,  to  Wyoming  and  Philadelphia, 
for  a  slight  consideration,  as  can  be  seen  by  the  fol- 
lowing receipt : — 

"Received  ten  pounds  for  my  journey  with  Sr.  Wm. 
Johnson' s  Letter  to  Teedyuscung  at  Wyomink,  &  bringing 
his  answer  to  Philadelphia.  DAVID  ZISBERGER. 

"ApBiL5tli,  1762." ' 

Mail  matter  for  the  settlements  upon  the  northeast 
branch  of  the  Susquehanna  and  its  larger  tributaries  came 
from  Philadelphia,  ma%  Sunbury  or  Easton,  to  Wilkes 
Barre,  whence  it  was  diffused  tardily  through  the  broken 
openings  of  northern  Pennsylvania. 

The  inhabitants  being  few,  and  poor  withal,  scattered 
over  a  wide  range  of  territory,  the  post-office  for  the  town- 
ship was  sometimes  located  at  a  point  where  there  stood 
but  a  single  cabin,  yet  this  did  not  render  the  operations 
of  the  office  any  the  less  harmonious  or  effective. 

There  yet  lives  in  the  valley  an  old  gentleman  who 
prided  in  the  duties  of  mail-boy  from  1811-24,  and  who, 
during  these  dozen  of  years  encountered  dangers  in  ford- 
ing streams  swift  and  swollen,  traversing  roads  lined 
with  stumps  and  stone,  and  yet,  characterized  by  a  natu- 

1  Documentary  History  of  New  York,  p.  310. 


368  HISTORY    OF    THE 

ral  cheerfulness  and  love  of  fun  himself,  he  sometimes 
forgot  the  loneliness  of  his  journey  as  he  encountered 
humanity  in  its  most  amusing  aspects,  at  the  stopping- 
places  on  his  route. 

"At  one  point,"  writes  our  informant,  "the  office  was 
kept  in  a  low,  log  bar-room,  where,  after  the  contents  of 
the  mail-pouch  .were  emptied  on  the  unswept  floor,  all  the 
inmates  gave  slow  and  repeated  motion  to  each  respective 
paper  and  letter." 

Sometimes  the  mail-boy,  finding  no  one  at  home  but 
the  children,  who  were  generally  engaged  drumming  on 
the  dinner- pot,  or  the  housewife,  unctuous  with  lard  and 
dough,  lol-li-bye-babying  a  boisterous  child  to  sleep,  was 
compelled  to  act  as  carrier  and  postmaster  himself. 

At  another  point  upon  the  route,  the  commission  of  post- 
master fell  upon  the  thick  shoulders  of  a  Dutchman, 
remarkable  for  nothing  but  his  full,  round  stomach.  This 
was  his  pride,  and  he  would  pat  it  incessantly  while  he 
dilated  upon  the  virtues  of  his  "krout"  and  his  "frow." 

It  would  have  been  amazingly  stupid  for  the  Depart- 
ment to  have  questioned  Ms  order  or  integrity,  for  as  the 
lean  mail-bag  came  tumbling  into  his  door  from  the  saddle, 
the  old  comical  Dutchman  and  his  devoted  wife  carried  it 
to  a  rear  bedroom  in  his  house,  poured  the  contents  upon 
the  floor,  where  at  one  time  it  actually  took  them  both 
from  three  o'clock  one  afternoon  until  nine  the  next  morn- 
ing to  change  the  mail !  Believing  with  Lord  Bacon,  that 
"knowledge  is  power,"  he  detained  about  election  time, 
all  political  documents  directed  to  his  opponents.  These 
he  carefully  deposited  in  a  safe  place  in  his  garret  until 
after  election  day,  when  they  were  handed  over  with 
great  liberality  to  those  to  whom  they  belonged,  provided 
he  was  paid  the  postage. 

"  At  another  remote  place  where  the  office  was  kept,  the 
mail-bag  being  sometimes  returned  to  the  post-boy  almost 
empty,  led  him  to  investigate  the  cause  of  this  sudden 
collapse  in  a  neighborhood  inhabited  by  few.  The  pro- 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  369 

lific  number  of  ten  children,  graduating  from  one  to 
twenty  in  years,  all  called  the  postmaster  "dad,"  and 
as  none  could  read,  letters  and  papers  came  to  a  dead  stop 
on  arriving  thus  far.  As  these  were  poured  out  on  the 
floor  among  pans  and  kettles,  each  child  would  seize  a 
package,  exclaiming,  this  is  for  me,  and  this  for  you,  and 
that  for  some  one  else,  until  the  greater  bulk  of  mail-mat- 
ter intended  for  other  offices  was  parceled  out  and 
appropriated,  and  never  heard  of  again." 

THE  PENNSYLVANIA  COAL  COMPANY. 

The  definite  and  successful  character  of  the  coal  schemes 
devised  by  the  Wurts  brothers,  tested  amidst  every  pos- 
sible element  of  discouragement  and  hostility,  inclined  capi- 
talists to  glance  toward  the  hills  from  whence  coal  slowly 
drifted  to  the  sea-board.  Drinker  and  Meredith,  aiming  at 
reciprocal  objects,  and  alive  to  venture  and  enterprise, 
each  obtained  a  charter  for  a  railroad  in  the  valley, 
which,  owing  to  the  absence  of  capital,  proved  of  no  prac- 
tical value  at  the  time  to  any  one. 

Twenty-one  years  after  coal  was  carried  from  Carbon- 
dale  by  railroad  toward  a  New  York  market,  the  Penn- 
sylvania Coal  Company  began  the  transportation  of  their 
coal  from  the  Lackawanna.  This  company,  the  second 
one  operating  in  the  valley,  was  incorporated  by  the 
Pennsylvania  Legislature  in  1838,  with  a  capital  of  $200,000. 
The  proposed  road  was  to  connect  Pittston  with  the  Dela- 
ware and  Hudson  Canal  at  some  point  along  the  Wallen- 
paupack  Creek  in  the  county  of  Wayne. 

The  commissioners  appointed  in  this  act  organized  the 
company  in  the  spring  of  1839,  and  commenced  operat- 
ing in  Pittston  on  a  small  scale.  After  mining  a  limited 
quantity  of  coal  from  their  lands — of  which  they  were 
allowed  to  hold  one  thousand  acres — it  was  taken  down 
the  North  Branch  Canal,  finding  a  market  at  Harrisburg 
and  other  towns  along  the  Susquehanna. 

24 


370  HISTORY   OF   THE 

Simultaneously  with  the  grant  of  this  charter,  another 
was  given  to  a  body  of  gentlemen  in  Honesdale,  known 
as  the  Washington  Coal  Company,  with  a  capital  of 
$300,000,  empowered  to  hold  two  thousand  acres  of  land 
in  the  coal  basin.  This  last  charter,  lying  idle  for  nine 
years,  was  sold  to  William  Wurts,  Charles  Wurts,  and 
others  of  Philadelphia,  in  1847. 

In  1845,  the  first  stormy  impulse  or  excitement  in  coal 
lands  went  through  the  central  and  lower  part  of  the  val- 
ley. Large  purchases  of  coal  property  were  made  for  a 
few  wealthy  men  of  Philadelphia,  who  had  reconnoitered 
the  general  features  of  the  country  with  a  view  of  con- 
structing a  railroad  from  the  Lackawanna  to  intersect  the 
Delaware  and  Hudson  Canal  near  the  mouth  of  the  Pau- 
pack. 

The  preliminary  surveys  upon  the  proposed  route  had 
barely  commenced,  before  there  sprang  up  in  Providence 
and  Blakeley,  opposition  of  the  most  relentless  and  for- 
midable character.     Men  who  had  hitherto  embarrassed 
the  company  mining  coal  in  Carbondale  during  its  infancy, 
found   scope  here  for  their  remaining  malignity.      The 
most  plausible  ingenuity  was  employed  to   defeat  the 
entrance   of  a  road  whose  operations   could  not  fail  to 
inspire  and   enlarge  every  industrial  activity  along  its 
border.     Meeting  after  meeting  was  held  at  disaffected 
points,  having  for  their  object  the  destruction  of  the  very 
measures,  which,  when  matured,  were  calculated  to  result 
as  they  did  to  the  advantage  of  those  who  opposed  them. 
It  was  urged  with  no  little  force,  that  if  these  Philadel- 
phians  "  seeking  the  blood  of  the  country,"  were  allowed 
to  make  a  railroad  through  Cobb's  Gap,  the  only  natural 
key  or  eastern  outlet  to  the  valley,  the  rich  deposits  of 
coal  and  iron  remaining  in  the  hands  of  the  settlers  would 
be  locked  in  and  rendered  useless  forever.     Such  falla- 
cious notions,  urged  by   alms-asking  demagogues   with 
steady  clamor  upon  a  people  jealous  of  their  preroga- 
tives, inflamed  the  public  mind  for  a  period  of  three  years 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  371 

against  this  company,  but  after  such,  considerations  as 
selfish  agitators  will  sometimes  covet  and  accept  tranquil- 
ized  opposition,  those  amicable  relations  which  have  since 
existed  with  the  country  commenced. 

In  1846,  the  Legislature  of  Pennsylvania  passed  "  an  act 
incorporating  the  Luzerne  and  Wayne  Railroad  Company, 
with  a  capital  stock  of  $500,000,  with  authority  to  con- 
struct a  road  from  the  Lackawaxen  to  the  Lacka wanna." 

Before  this  company  manifested  organic  life,  its  charter, 
confirmed  without  reward,  and  that  of  the  Washington 
Coal  Company  being  purchased,  were  merged  into  the 
Pennsylvania  Coal  Company,  by  an  act  of  the  Legislature 
passed  in  1849. 

This  road,  whose  working  capacity  is  equal  to  one  and 
a  half  million  tons  per  annum,  was  commenced  in  1848 ; 
completed  in  May,  1850.  It  is  forty-seven  miles  in  length, 
passing  with  a  single  track  from  the  coal-mines  on  the  Sus- 
quehanna  at  Pittston  to  those  lying  near  Cobb'  s  Gap,  ter- 
minating at  the  Delaware  and  Hudson  Canal  at  the  spirited 
village  of  Hawley.  It  is  worked  at  moderate  expense,  and 
in  the  most  simple  manner  for  a  profitable  coal-road — the 
cars  being  drawn  up  the  mountain  by  a  series  of  station- 
ary steam-engines  and  planes,  and  then  allowed  to  run  by 
their  own  weight,  at  a  rate  of  ten  or  twelve  miles  an  hour, 
down  a  grade  sufficiently  descending  to  give  the  proper 
momentum  to  the  train.  The  movement  of  the  cars  is  so 
easy,  that  there  is  but  little  wear  along  the  iron  pathway, 
while  the  too  rapid  speed  is  checked  by  the  slight  appli- 
cation of  brakes.  No  railroad  leading  into  the  valley 
makes  less  noise  ;  none  does  so  really  a  remunerative 
business,  earning  over  ten  per  cent,  on  its  capital  at  the 
present  low  prices  of  coal ;  thus  illustrating  the  great 
superiority  of  a  "gravity  road"  over  all  others  for  the 
cheap  transportation  of  anthracite  over  the  ridges  sur- 
rounding the  coal-fields  of  Pennsylvania. 

The  true  system,  exemplified  twenty  years  ago  by  its 
present  superintendent,  John  B.  Smith,  Esq.,  of  uniting 


372  HISTORY    OF   THE 

the  interests  of  the  laboring-man  with  those  of  the  com- 
pany, as  far  as  possible,  has  been  one  of  the  most  efficient 
measures  whereby  "strikes'"  have  been  obviated,  and  the 
general  prosperity  of  the  road  steadily  advanced. 

Through  the  instrumentality  of  Mr.  Smith  this  has  been 
done  in  a  manner  so  uniform  yet  unobtrusive,  as  to  make 
it  a  model  coal- road.  It  carries  no  passengers. 

This  company,  having  a  capital  of  about  $4,000,000, 
gives  employment  to  over  three  thousand  men. 

FROM    PITTSTON    TO    HAWLEY. 

A  ride  upon  a  coal-train  over  the  gravity  road  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Coal  Company,  from  Pittston  to  Hawley,  is 
not  without  interest  or  incident.  Starting  from  the  banks 
of  the  Susquehanna,  it  gradually  ascends  the  border  of 
the  Moosic  Mountain  for  a  dozen  miles,  when,  as  if 
refreshed  by  its  slow  passage  up  the  rocky  way,  it  hur- 
ries the  long  train  down  to  the  Dyberry  at  Hawley  with 
but  a  single  stoppage. 

Let  the  tourist  willing  to  blend  venture  with  pleasure, 
step  upon  the  front  of  the  car  as  it  ascends  Plane  No.  2, 
at  Pittston,  and  brings  to  view  the  landscape  of  Wyoming 
Valley,  with  all  its  variety  of  plain,  river,  and  mountain, 
made  classic  by  song  and  historic  by  her  fields  of  blood. 
The  Susquehanna,  issuing  from  the  highland  lakes  of  Ot- 
sego,  flows  along,  equaled  only  in  beauty  by  the  Rhine, 
through  a  region  famed  for  its  Indian  history — the  mas- 
sacre upon  its  fertile  plain,  and  the  sanguinary  conflict 
between  the  Yankees  and  Pennymites  a  century  ago.  The 
cars,  freighted  with  coal,  move  their  spider-feet  toward 
Hawley.  Slow  at  first,  they  wind  around  curve  and  hill, 
gathering  speed  and  strength  as  they  oscillate  over  ravine, 
woodland,  and  water.  Emerging  from  deep  cuts  or  dense 
woods,  the  long  train  approaches  Spring  Brook.  Cross- 
ing this  trout  stream  upon  a  trestling  thrown  across  the 
ravine  of  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  the  cars  slacken  their  speed 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  373 

as  they  enter  the  narrow  rock-cut  at  the  foot  of  the  next 
plane.  While  looking  upon  the  chiseled  precipice  to  find 
some  egress  to  this  apparent  cavern,  the  buzz  of  the  pulley 
comes  from  the  plane,  and  through  the  granite  passage,, 
deep  and  jaw-like,  you  are  drawn  to  a  height  where  the 
glance  of  the  surrounding  woods  is  interrupted  by  the 
sudden  manner  in  which  you  afe  drawn  into  the  very  top 
of  engine-house  No.  4. 

The  Lybian  desert,  in  the  desolation  of  its  sands,  offers 
more  to  admire  than  the  scenery  along  the  level  from  No. 
4  to  No.  5.  Groups  of  rock,  solitary  in  dignity  and  gray 
with  antiquity,  are  seen  upon  every  side ;  trees  grow 
dwarfed  from  their  accidental  foothold ;  and  only  here 
and  there  a  tuft  of  wild  grass  holds  its  unfriendly  place. 
The  babbling  of  a  brook  at  the  foot  of  No.  5,  alone  falls 
pleasantly  upon  the  ear.  As  the  cars  roll  up  the  plane, 
the  central  portion  of  the  valley  is  brought  before  the  eye 
on  a  scale  of  refreshing  magnificence.  The  features  of 
the  scenery  become  broader  and  more  picturesque.  The 
Moosic  range,  marking  either  side  of  the  valley,  so  robed 
with  forest  to  its  very  summit  as  to  present  two  vast 
waves  of  silent  tree4op,  encircle  the  ancient  home  and 
stronghold  of  Capoose.  As  you  look  down  into  this  am- 
phitheater, crowded  with  commercial  and  village  life, 
catching  a  glimpse  of  the  river  giving  a  richer  shade  to  a 
meadow  where  the  war-song  echoed  less  than  a  century 
ago,  evidences  of  thrift  everywhere  greet  and  gladden  the 
eye. 

At  No.  6,  upon  the  northern  bank  of  the  Roaring 
Brook,  are  located  the  most  eastern  mines  of  this  com- 
pany, being  those  which  are  situated  the  nearest  to  New 
York  City.  These  consist  of  a  series  of  coal  deposits, 
varied  in  purity,  thickness,  and  value,  but  all  profitably 
worked.  The  largest  vein  of  coal  mined  here  is  full  eight 
feet  thick,  and  is  the  highest  coal  mined  on  the  hill  north- 
west of  plane  No.  6. 

Upon  the  opposite  range  of  the  Moosic  Mountain,  in 


374  HISTORY   OF  T11E 

the  vicinity  of  Leggett's  Gap,  this  same  stratum  of  coal 
is  worked  by  other  companies.  Each  acre  of  coal  thus 
mined  from  this  single  vein  yields  about  10,000  tons  of 
good  merchantable  coal. 

The  Delaware,  Lacka wanna,  and  Western  Railroad, 
crosses  that  of  the  Pennsylvania  at  No.  6,  giving  some 
interest  to  the  most  flinty  rocks  and  soil  in  the  world. 
No.  6  is  a  colony  by  itself.  It  is  one  of  those  humanized 
points  destitute  of  every  natural  feature  to  render  it  attrac- 
tive. 

On  either  side  of  the  ravine  opening  for  the  passage  of 
Roaring  Brook,  the  sloping  hill,  bound  by  rock,  is  cov- 
ered with  shanties  sending  forth  a  brogue  not  to  be  mis- 
taken ;  a  few  respectable  houses  stand  in  the  background  ; 
the  offices,  store-house,  workshops,  and  the  large  stone 
car  and  machine  shops  of  the  company  are  located  on  the 
northern  bank  of  the  brook.  Some  sixty  years  ago  a  saw- 
mill erected  in  this  piny  declivity  by  Stephen  Tripp,  who 
afterward  added  a  small  grist-mill  by  its  side,  was  the 
only  mark  upon  the  spot  until  the  explorations  and  sur- 
vey of  this  company.  This  jungle,  darkened  by  laurels 
blending  their  evergreen  with  the  taller  undergrowth, 
was  more  formidable  from  the  fact  that  during  the  earlier 
settlement  of  Dunmore  it  was  the  constant  retreat  of 
wolves. 

Over  this  savage  nook,  industry  and  capital  have 
achieved  their  triumphs  and  brought  into  use  a  spot 
nature  cast  in  a  careless  mood.  At  the  head  of  No .  6 
stand  the  great  coal  screens  for  preparing  the  finer  quality 
of  coal,  operated  by  steam-power. 

Up  the  slope  of  the  Moosic,  plane  after  plane,  you 
ascend  along  the  obliterated  Indian  path  and  Connecticut 
road,  enjoying  so  wide  a  prospect  of  almost  the  entire  val- 
ley from  Pittston  to  Carbondale,  that  for  a  moment  you 
forget  that  in  the  crowded  streets  elsewhere  are  seen  so 
many  bodies  wanting  souls.  Dunmore,  Scranton,  Hyde 
Park,  Providence,  Olyphant,  Peckville,  Green  Ridge, 


LACKAWAXNA    VALLEY.  375 

and  Dickson  appear  in  the  foreground,  while  the  Moosic, 
here  and  there  serrated  for  a  brook,  swings  out  its  great 
arms  in  democratic  welcome  to  the  genius  of  the  artificer, 
first  shearing  the  forest,  then  prospering  and  perfecting 
the  industrial  interest  everywhere  animating  the  valley. 
The  long  lines  of  pasturage  spotted  with  the  herd,  the 
elongated,  red-necked  chimneys  distinguishing  the  coal 
works  multiplied  almost  without  number  in  their  varied 
plots,  give  to  these  domains  a  picturesqueness  and  width 
seen  nowhere  to  such  an  advantage  in  a  clear  day  as  on 
the  summit  of  Cobb  Mountain,  two  thousand  feet  above 
the  tide. 

Diving  through  the  tunnel,  the  train  emerges  upon  the 
"barrens,"  where,  in  spite  of  every  disadvantage  of  cold, 
high  soil,  are  seen  a  few  farms  of  singular  productive- 
ness. The  intervening  country  from  the  tunnel  to  Hawley, 
partakes  of  the  hilly,  aspect  of  northern  Pennsylvania, 
diversified  by  cross-roads,  clearings,  farm-houses,  and 
streams.  Here  and  there  a  loose-tongued  rivulet  blends 
its  airs  with  the  revolving  car- wheel  humming  along  some 
shady  glen,  and  farther  along,  the  narrow  cut,  like  the  sea 
of  old,  opens  for  a  friendly  passage.  Down  an  easy  grade, 
amidst  tall,  old  beechen  forests  half  hewn  away  for  clear- 
ings and  homes  of  the  frugal  farmers,  the  cars  roll  at  a 
speed  of  twelve  miles  an  hour  over  a  distance  of  some 
thirty  miles  from  the  tunnel,  when,  turning  sharply 
around  the  base  of  a  steep  hill  on  the  left,  the  cars  land 
into  the  village  of  Hawley,  a  vigorous  settlement,  existing 
and  sustaining  itself  principally  by  the  industrial  manip- 
ulations of  this  company. 

A  little  distance  below  the  village,  the  Wallenpaupack, 
after  leaping  150  feet  over  the  terraced  precipice,  unites 
with  the  Lackawaxen,  a  swift,  navigable  stream  in  a 
freshet,  down  whose  waters  coal  was  originally  taken 
from  the  Lacka wanna  Valley  to  the  Delaware  in  arks. 

It  is  fourteen  miles  to  Lackawaxen  upon  the  Delaware, 
where,  in  1779,  a  bloody  engagement  took  place  between 


S76  HISTORY    OF    THE     1 

John  Brant,  the  famous  chief  of  the  Six  Nations,  'arid 
some  four  hundred  Orange  county  militia. 

The  Tories  and  Indians  had  burned  the  town  of  Minisink, 
ten  miles  west  of  Goshen,  scalping  and  torturing  those 
who  could  not  escape  from  the  tomahawk  by  flight. 
Being  themselves  pursued  by  some  raw  militia,  hastily 
gathered  from  the  neighborhood  for  the  purpose,  they 
retreated  to  the  mouth  of  the  Lackawaxen.  Here  Brant 
.with  his  followers  formed  an  ambuscade.  The  whites, 
'burning^ to  avenge  the  invaders  of  their  firesides,  incau- 
tiously rushed  on  after  the  fleeing  savages,  ignorant  or 
forgetting  the  wily  character  of  their  foe.  As  the  troops 
were  rising  over  a  hill  covered  with  trees,  and  had  become 
.completely  surrounded  in  the  fatal  ring,  hundreds  of  sav- 
ages poured  in  upon  them  such  a  merciless  fire,  accom- 
panied with  the  fearful  war-whoop,  that  they  were  at  once 
thrown  into  terrible  confusion.  Every  savage  was  sta- 
tioned behind  the  trunk  of  some  tree  or  rock  which 
shielded  him  from  the  bullets  of  the  militia.  For  half  an 
hour  the  unequal  conflict  raged  with  increasing  fury,  the 
blaze  of  the  guns  flashing  through  the  gloom  of  the  day, 
as  feebler  and  faster  fell  the  little  band.  At  length,  when 
half  of  their  number  were  either  slain  or  so  shattered  by 
-the  bullets  as  to  be  mere  marks  for  the  sharp-shooters,  the 
remainder  threw  away  their  guns  and  fled  ;  but  so  closely 
were  they  in  turn  pursued  by  the  exultant  enemy  that  only 
thirty  out  of  the  entire  body  escaped  to  tell  the  sad  story  of 
xlefeat.  .Many  of  these  reached  their  homes  with  fractured 
bones  and  fatal  wounds.  The  remains  of  those  who  had 
fallen  at  this  time  wen;  gathered  in  1822,  and  deposited 
in  a  suitable  place  and  manner  by  the  citizens  of  Uoshen. 

The  New  York  and  Erie  Railroad  have  sent  up  a  branch 
•road  from  a  point  near  this  battle-ground  to  Hawley,  thus 
giving  to  the  Pennsylvania  Coal  Company  an  unfrozen 
avenue  to  the  sea-board-,  besides  dispensing  in  a  great 
degree  with  water  facilities  offered  and  enjoyed  until 'the 
completion  of  this  branch  in  1863. 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  377 

From  1850  to  1866,  9,308,396.  tons  of  coal  was  brought 
from  the  mines  to  Hawley,  being  an  average  of  581,775 
tons  per  year.1 

While  a  great  part. of  the  coal  carried  to  Hawley  ac- 
knowledges the  jurisdiction  of  tliis  branch  road,  a  limited 
portion  is  unloaded  into  boats  upon  the  Delaware  and 
Hudson  Canal. 

Once  emptied,  the  cars  return  to  the  valley  upon  a 
track  called  the  light  track,  where  the  light  or  empty 
cars  are  self-gravitated  down  a  heavier  grade  to  the 
coal-mines.  Seated  in  the  "  Pioneer,"  a  rude  passenger 
concern,  losing  some  of  the  repelling  character  of  the 
coal  car,  in  its  plain,  pine  seats  and  arched  roof,  you  rise 
up  the  plane  from  the  Lacka waxen  Creek  a  considerable 
distance  before  entering  a  series  of  ridges  of  scrub-oak 
land,  barren  both  of  interest  and  value  until  made  other- 
wise by  the  fortunes  of  this  company.  Leaving  Palmyra 
township,  this  natural  barrenness  disappears  in  a  great 
measure  as  you  enter,  the  richer  uplands  of  Salem,  where 
an  occasional  farm  is  observed  of  great  fertility,  in  spite 
of  the  accompanying  houses,  barns,  and  fences  defying 
every  attribute  of  Heaven' s  first  law.  About  one  mile 
from  the  road,  amidst  the  quiet  hills  of  Wayne  County, 
nestles  the  village  of  Hollisterville.  It  lies  on  a  branch  of 
the  Wallenpaupack,  seven  miles  from  Cobb  Pond,  on  the 


1  Report  of  Coal  transported  over  the  Pennsylvania  Coal  Company's  Railroad 
for  week  and  for  year  ending  December  31,  1868,  and  for  corresponding  period 
last  year: — 

By  Rail,  week  ending  December  31 12,786  03 

"        Previously 912,063  10 

_ 924,849  13 

By  Canal,  week  ending  December  26 *        Closed. 

"        Previously 29,004  19 

29,004  10 


Total  by  Canal  and  Rail.  18G8. 95'5,854  12 

"     To  same  date,  1867 861,72915; 


Increase   92,124  17 ' 

JNO.  B.  SMITH,  Superintendent. 


378  HISTORY    OF    T11K 

mountain,  and  ten  miles  above  the  ancient  "Laekawa" 
settlement.  AMASA  HOLLISTER,  with  his  sons,  Alpheus, 
Alanson,  and  Wesley,  emigrated  from  Hartford,  Connec- 
ticut, to  this  place  in  1814,  when  the  hunter  and  the 
trapper  only  were  familiar  with  the  forest.  Many  of  the 
social  comforts  of  the  village,  and  much  of  the  rigid 
morality  of  New  England  character  can  be  traced  to  these 
pioneers.  Up  No.  21  you  rise,  and  then  roll  toward  the 
valley.  The  deepest  and  greatest  gap  eastward  from  the 
Lackawanna  is  Cobb's,  through  which  flows  the  Roaring 
Brook.  This  shallow  brook,  from  some  cause,  appears 
to  have  lost  much  of  its  ancient  size,  as  it  breaks  through 
the  picturesque  gorge  with  shrunken  volume  to  find  its 
way  into  the  Lackawanna  at  Scranton. 

This  gap  in  the  mountain,  deriving  its  name  from  Asa 
Cobb,  who  settled  in  the  vicinity  in  1784,  lies  three  miles 
east  of  Scranton.  It  really  offers  to  geologist  or  the  casual 
inquirer  much  to  interest.  This  mountain  rent,  unable 
longer  to  defy  the  triumphs  of  science,  seems  to  have 
been  furrowed  out  by  the  same  agency  which  drew  across 
the  Alleghany  the  transverse  lines  diversifying  the  entire 
range.  Like  the  mountain  at  the  Delaware  Water  Gap,  it 
bears  evidence  of  having  once  been  the  margin  of  one 
of  the  lakes  submerging  the  country  at  a  period  anterior 
to  written  or  traditional  history.  Emerging  from  beech 
and  maple  woodlands,  you  catch  a  glimpse  of  a  long, 
colossal  ledge,  bending  in  graceful  semicircle,  rising  'ver- 
tically from  the  Roaring  Brook  some  three  hundred  feet 
or  more.  Its  face,  majestic  in  its  wildness,  as  it  first 
greets  the  eye,  reminds  one  of  the  palisades  along  the 
Hudson.  As  it  is  approached  upon  the  cars,  the  flank  of 
the  mountain  defies  further  progress  in  that  direction, 
when  the  road,  with  a  corresponding  bend  to  the  left, 
winds  the  train  from  apparent  danger,  moving  down  the 
granite  bank  of  the  brook  deeper  and  deeper  into  the 
gorge,  enhanced  in  interest  by  woods  and  waterfall.  The 
hemlock  assumes  the  mastery  of  the  forest  along  the 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  379 

brook,  whose  waters  whiten  as  they  pour  over  precipice 
after  precipice  into  pools  below,  which  but  few  years 
since  were  so  alive  with  trout,  that  fishing  half-an-hour 
with  a  single  pole  and  line  supplied  the  wants  of  a 
family  for  a  day  with  this  delicious  fish.  In  the  nar- 
rowest part  of  the  gap,  the  cars  run  on  a  mere  shelf,  cut 
from  the  rock  a  hundred  feet  from  the  bed  of  the  stream, 
while  the  mountain,  wrapped  in  evergreens,  rises  abruptly 
from  the  track  many  hundred  feet. 

Greenville,  a  fossilized  station  on  the  Delaware,  Lacka- 
wanna,  and  Western  Railroad,  and  once  the  terminus 
of  the  Lackawanna  Railroad,  lies  on  a  slope  opposite 
this  point. 

The  great  pyloric  orifice  of  Cobb's  Gap,  once  offering 
uncertain  passage  to  the  Indian's  craft,  illustrates  the 
achievement  of  art  over  great  natural  obstacles.  Roaring 
Brook,  Drinker's  turnpike,  now  used  as  a  township  road, 
the  Pennsylvania  arid  the  Delaware,  Lackawanna,  and 
Western  Railroad,  find  ample  place  under  the  shadow  of 
its  walls. 

A  ride  of  an  hour,  far  up  from  the  bottom  of  the  valley 
through  a  forest  trimmed  of  its  choicest  timber  by  the 
lumbermen  and  shingle-makers,  brings  the  traveler  again 
to  Pittston,  renovated  in  spirits  and  vigor,  and  instructed 
in  the  manner  of  diffusing  anthracite  coal  throughout 
the  country. 

DELAWAKE,    LACKA  WANNA,    AND  WESTERN   RAILROAD. 

Historical  Summary  of  the  Susquehanna  and  Delaware  Canal 
and  Railroad  Company  (Drinker's  Railroad) — The  Leggetfs 
Gap  Railroad — The  Delaware  and  Cobb's  Gap  Railroad 
Company — All  merged  into  the  Delaware,  Lackawanna,  and 
Western  Railroad. 

Imperfect  as  was  the  knowledge  of  the  value  of  coal 
forty  years  ago,  large  bodies  of  it  being  discovered  here  and 
there  in 'the  valley,  mostly  upon  or  near  the  surface,  led 


380  HISTORY   OF   THJE 

the  late  Henry  W,  Drinker  to  comprehend  and  agitate  a 
plan  of  connecting  the  Susquehanna  River  at  Pittston  with 
the  Delaware  at  the  Water  Gap,  by  means  of  a  railroad 
running  up  the  Lacka wanna  to  the  month  of  Roaring 
Brook,  thence  up  that  stream  to  the  placid  waters  of  Lake 
Henry,  crossing  the  headsprings  of  the  Lehigh  upon  the 
marshy  table-land  forming  the  dividing  ridge  between  the 
Susquehanua  and  Delaware,  and  down  the  Pocono  and 
the  rapid  Alanomink  to  the  Water  Gap,  with  a  view  of 
reaching  a  market. 

This  was  in  1819.  The  contemplated  route,  marked 
by  the  hatchet  over  mountain  and  ravine  profound  in  the 
depth  of  their  solitude,  had  no  instrumental  survey  until 
eleven  years  afterward,  but  an  examination  of  the  country, 
with  which  no  woodman  was  more  familiar  than  Drinker, 
satisfied  him  that  the  intersecting  line  of  communication 
was  not  only  feasible,  but  that  its  practical  interpretation 
would  utilize  the  intervening  section,  and  give  action  and 
impulse  to  many  an  idle  ax.  In  Aprilj  1826,  he  easily 
obtained  an  act  of  incorporation  of  the  "  Susquehanna 
and  Delaware  Canal  and  Railroad  Company."  The  char- 
ter implied  either  a  railroad  operated  up  the  planes  by 
water,-  or  a  canal  a  portion  of  the  way.  The  "  head- waters 
of  the  river  Lehigh  and  its  tributary  stream,"  were  pro- 
hibited from  being  used  for  feeding  the  canal,  as  it  might 
"injure  the  navigation  of  said  river,  from  Mauch  Chunk 
to  Easton."  By  reference  to  the  original  report  and  sur- 
vey of  this  road,  it  appears  that  horses  were  contemplated 
as  the  motive  power  between  the  planes,  that  toll-houses 
were  to  be  established  along  the  line,  and  collectors 
appointed,  and  that  the  drivers  or  conductors  of  "such 
wagon,  carriage,  or  conveyance,  boat  or  raft,  were  to  give 
the  collectors  notice  of  their  approach  to  said  toll-houses 
by  blowing  a  trumpet  or  horn." 

Henry  W.  Drinker,  William  Henry,  David  Scott,  Jacob 
D.  and  Daniel  Stroud,  James  N.  Porter,  A.  E.  Brown,  S. 
Stokes,  and  John  Coolbaugh,  were  the  commissioners. 


LACKAWANA   VALLEY. 

Among  the  few  persons  in  Pennsylvania  willing  to  wel- 
come and  recognize  the  practicability  of  a  railroad  route 
in  spite  of  the  wide-spread  distrust  menacing  it  in  1830, 
stood  prominently  a  gentleman,  by  the  aid  of  whom,  the 
Indian  Capoose  region  of  Slocum  Hollow  changed  the 
ruggedness  of  its  aspect — William  Henry.  In  fact,  Messrs. 
Henry  and  Drinker  were  two  of  the  most  indefatigable 
and  energetic  members  of  the  board. 

In  1830,  a  subscription  of  a  few  hundred  dollars  was 
obtained  from  the  commissioners;  in  May,  1831,  Mr. 
Henry,  in  accordance  with  the  wishes  of  the  board, 
engaged  Major  Ephraim  Beach,  C.  E.,  to  run  a  prelimi- 
nary line  of  survey  over  the  intervening  country. 

By  reference  to  the  old  report  of  Major  Beach,  it  will 
be  seen  that  the  present  line  of  the  southern  division  of 
the  Delaware,  Lackawanna,  and  Western  Railroad  is,  in 
the  main,  much  the  same  as  that  run  by  him  at  this  time. 
Seventy  miles  in  length  the  road  was  to  be  made,  at  a 
total  estimated  cost  of  $624,720.  Three  hundred  and 
thirty-six  wagons  (cars),  capable  of  carrying  over  the 
road  240,000  tons  of  coal  per  year,  were  to  be  employed. 

Coal  at  this  time  was  worth  $9  per  ton  in  New  York, 
while  coal  lands  in  the  valley  could  be  bought  at  prices 
varying  from  $10  to  $20  per  acre. 

It  was  not  supposed  by  the  commissioners  that  the  coal 
trade  alone  could  make  this  road  one  so  profitable,  but  it 
was  originally  their  object  to  connect  the  two  at  these 
points,  so  as  to  participate  in  the  trade  upon  the  Susque- 
hanna.  For  the  return  business  it  was  thought  that 
"  iron  in  bars,  pig,  and  castings,  would  be  sent  from  the 
borders  of  the  Delaware  in  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey, 
and  that  limestone  in  great  quantities  would  be  trans- 
ported from  the  same  district  and  burned  in  the  ;coal 
region,  where  fuel  would  be  abundant  and  cheap."  1 

Simultaneously  with  this  survey  was  the  route  "of  the 

1  Commissioners'  Report  of  the  Route,  1832. 


382  HI8TOBY   OF   THE 

Lackawannock  and  Susquehanna,  or  Meredith  Railroad, 
leading  from  the  mouth  of  Leggett's  Creek  in  Providence 
up  to  that  graceful  loop  in  the  Susquehanna,  called  Great 
Bend,  forty-seven  and  a  half  miles  away,  undertaken  and 
surveyed  by  the  late  James  Seymour,  four  years  after  the 
granting  of  its  charter. 

Near  the  small  village  of  Providence  these  two  roads, 
neither  of  which  contemplated  the  use  of  locomotives  in 
their  reliance  upon  gravity  and  seven  inclined  planes, 
were  to  form  a  junction,  and  expected  to  breathe  life  and 
unity  into  the  iron  pathway  that  was  to  grope  its  way 
out  of  a  valley  having  scarcely  a  name  away  from  its 
immediate  border.  Neither  road  proposed  to  carry  pas- 
sengers. 

The  report  of  the  commissioners,  presenting  the  subject 
in  its  most  attractive  light,  failed  to  excite  the  attention  it 
deserved.  Men  reputed  as  reliable  looked  upon  the 
scheme  as  unworthy  of  serious  notice.  Those  who  had 
achieved  an  indifferent  livelihood  by  the  shot-gun  or  the 
plow,  saw  no  propriety  in  favoring  a  plan  whose  fulfill- 
ment promised  no  protection  to  game  or  greater  product 
to  the  field. 

The  few  who  felt  that  its  success  would  interweave  its 
advantages  into  every  condition  of  life,  were  not  dis- 
mayed. 

In  the  spring  of  1832,  a  sufficient  amount  of  stock  hav- 
ing been  subscribed,  the  company  was  organized :  Drinker 
elected  president,  John  Jordon,  Jr.,  secretary,  and  Henry, 
treasurer.  At  a  subsequent  meeting  of  the  stockhold- 
ers, the  president  and  treasurer  were  constituted  a 
financial  committee  to  raise  means  to  make  the  road,  by 
selling  stock,  issuing  bonds,  or  by  hypothecating  the 
road,  &c.  The  engineer's  map,  the  commissioners'  re- 
port, and  newspaper  articles  were  widely  diffused,  to 
announce  the  material  benefits  to  result  by  the  comple- 
tion and  acquisition  of  this  new  thoroughfare. 

The  Lackawauna  Valley,  set  in  its  green  wild  ridges, 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  383 

known  in  New  York  City  only  by  the  Delaware  and 
Hudson  Canal  Company,  then  in  the  fourth  year  of  its 
existence,  confounded  often  with  the  Lackawaxen  region 
lying  upon  the  other  side  of  the  Moosic  Mountain,  neither 
Drinker' s  nor  Meredith' s  charter  was  received  with  favor 
or  attention. 

The  advantages  of  railroads  were  neither  understood 
nor  encouraged  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  valley  in  1832, 
because  the  slow  ox-team  or  jaded  saddle-horse  thus  far 
had  kept  pace  with  its  development.  To  render  the 
scheme,  however,  more  comprehensive  and  general  in  its 
character,  and  make  more  certain  the  building  of  the 
Drinker  railroad,  a  continuous  route  was  explored  for  a 
gravity  railroad,  "from  a  point  in  Cobb's  Gap,  where 
an  intersection  or  connection  can  be  conveniently  formed 
with  the  Susquehanna  and  Delaware  Railroad,  in  Luzerne 
County,"  up  through  Leggett's  Gap,  and  running  in  a 
northwesterly  direction  to  the  State  of  New  York. 

This  was  the  Leggett's  Gap  Railroad,  an  inclined  plane 
road  which,  when  completed,  was  expected  to  receive  the 
trade  along  the  fertile  plains  of  the  Susquehanna,  Che- 
nango,  and  the  Chemung,  now  enjoyed  so  profitably  by  the 
New  York  and  Erie  Railroad. 

H.  W.  Drinker,  Elisha  S.  Potter,  Thomas  Smith,  Dr. 
Andrew  Bedford,  and  Nathaniel  Cottrill — the  last  two  of 
whom  are  now  living — were  among  the  original  commis- 
sioners. 

Public  meetings  were  now  called  by  the  friends  of  the 
Drinker  road,  at  the  Old  Exchange  in  Wall  Street,  New 
York,  to  obtain  subscriptions  to  the  stock  of  the  com- 
pany, and,  while  many  persons  acknowledged  the  enter- 
prise to  be  a  matter  of  more  than  common  interest  to  the 
country  generally,  as  it  promised  when  completed,  to  fur- 
nish a  supply  of  coal  from  the  hills  of  Luzerne  County,  a 
county  where  thousands  of  millions  of  tons  of  the  best 
anthracite  coal  could  be  mined  from  a  region  of  more  than 
thirty-throe  miles  in  length,  and  averaging  more  than  two 


384-  HISTOBY    OF    TllE 

miles  in  width,  underlaid  with  coal  probably  rivet-aging 
fifty  feet  in  thickness,  and  besides  this,  unlike  most  other 
mining  portions  of  the  world,  it  abounded  in  agricultural 
fertility. 

While  these  facts  where  generally  conceded,  they  pro- 
duced no  other  effect,  than  bringing  from  capitalists  the 
favorable  opinion  that  final  triumph  probably  awaited 
their  hopes.  In  Morristown,  Newton,  Belvidere,  Newark, 
and  other  places  in  New  Jersey  ;  at  Easton,  Stroudsburg, 
Dunmore,  Providence,  and  Kingston,  in  Pennsylvania, 
meetings  were  called  to  draw  the  attention  of  the  public 
mind  and  acquire  the  requisite  irreans  to  open  this  high- 
way through  the  wilderness,  where  the  wolf,  crouched  in 
the  swamp,  bestowed  with  his  gray  eye  as  friendly  "a 
glance  upon  the  project  as  many  capitalists  were  inclined 
to  give  it.  Every  sanguine  hope,  every  flattering  promise 
made  in  a  spirit  of  apparent  earnestness  languished  and 
died  like  the  leaves  of  autumn. 

At  length,  engagements  were  made  with  New  York 
capitalists  to  carry  the  matter  forward  to  a  favorable  ter- 
mination, provided  that  Drinker  and  his  friends  would 
obtain  a  charter  for  a  continuous  line  of  gravity  railroad 
up  the  Susquehanna,  from  Pittston  to  the  New  York  State 
Hue.  In  1833,  a  perpetual  charter  for  such  a  road  was 
obtained  by  their  agency,  and  the  first  installment  of  five 
dollars  was  paid,  according  to  the  act  of  Assembly.  In 
itself  it  was  considered,  that  in  connection  with  other 
roads,  at  or  near  the  Delaware  Water  Gap  to  New  York 
City,  it  would  be  with  its  terminus  at  Jersey  City  east- 
wardly,  and  the  State  line  near  Athens,  in  Pennsylvania, 
westward,  the  shortest  and  the  best  line  the  natural 
avenues  indicated  from  New  York  west.  It  was  shown  by 
the  official  report  of  a  survey  made  in  1827,  by  John  Ben- 
nett, of  Kingston,  Pennsylvania,  that  the  distance  from 
the  mouth  of  the  Lackawanna  of  eighty-six  miles  had  but 
two  hundred  arid  fourteen  feet  fall,  or  about  two  and  a 
half  feet  per  mile,  the  acclivity  for  the  whole  distance 


LACJCAWANNA    VALLEY.  885 

being  in  general' nearly  equal,  and  beyond  this  to  the 
city  of  Elmira  at  about  the  same  grade. 

The  vast  project  of  the  New  York  and  Erie  Railroad 
was  agitating  southern  New  York  at  this  time.  Of  the 
seven  commissioners,  John  B.  Jervis,  Horatio  Allen, 
Jared  Wilson,  and  William  Dewy  urged  the  adoption  of 
the  present  route,  while  F.  Whittlesey,  Orville  W, 
Childs,  and  Job  Pierson  reported  adversely  to  it. 

The  New  York  gentlemen  interested  in  Drinker's  route, 
having  full  faith  in  the  realization  of  an  idea  promising 
control  of  a  line  reaching  the  same  point  on  the  New  York 
and  Erie  Railroad  (as  laid  down  by  Judge  Wright,  civil 
engineer,  but  on  which  nothing  more  had  yet  been  done), 
at  a  distance  of  eighty-one  miles  short  of  this  line,  while 
running  through  both  the  anthracite  and  bituminous  coal 
districts  upon  easier  grades,  were  greatly  encouraged  to 
hope  for  success;  several  sections  in  the  "Susquehanna 
Railroad"  law  were,  by  supplements,  so  amended  by 
legislative  enactments  as  to  fulfill  upon  that  point  every 
expectation. 

In  October,  1835,  the  services  of  Doctor  George.  Green, 
of  Belvidere,  who  was  a  friend  of  this  improvement,  and 
who  originated  the  "Belvidere Delaware  Railroad,"  were 
procured.  William  Henry's  note,  indorsed  by  Henry  W. 
Drinker,  accepted  and  indorsed  by  the  cashier  of  the 
Elizabeth  Bank  as  "good,"  was  taken  by  the  doctor  to 
the  Wyoming  Bank  at  Wilkes  Barre  as  a  deposit  and 
payment,  in  compliance  with  the  law  called  the  "Sus- 
quehanna Railroad"  act  of  Assembly  of  1833. 

In  consequence  of  the  commercial  embarrassments  alien- 
ating credit  and  confidence  throughout  the  entire  country 
in  1835-6,  the  New  York  party,  impoverished  and  appalled 
by  the  shock,  could  give  no  further  thought  to  the  road. 
Other  parties  being  prostrated  by  insolvency  or  death,  the 
positive  spirit,  inaugurating  the  company,  carried  with  it 
thus  far  a  success  decidedly  negative  and  skeptical. 

Ten  years  had  thus  escaped,  and  not  a  single  tie  nor  rail 


HISTORY   OF   THE 

had  shod  the  road  ;  here  and  there  a  few  limbs  clipped 
from  the  forest- tree  to  aid  the  surveyor,  and  a  few  rods 
graded  for  the  flat  iron  bar,  bore  evidence  of  the  hope  of 
the  directors. 

In  the  summer  of  1836,  there  was  traveling  in  the 
United  States  an  English  nobleman  named  Sir  Charles 
Augustus  Murray,  who,  learning  of  the  important  char- 
acter of  this  proposed  road  from  one  of  his  friends,  became 
interested  in  its  success.  A  correspondence  ensued,  which 
led  to  a  meeting  of  the  friends  of  the  project,  at  Easton, 
June  18,  1836  ;  Mr.  Drinker  and  Mr.  Henry  on  the  part  of 
the  railroad  company,  and  Mr.  Armstrong  of  New  York, 
Mr.  C.  A.  Murray,  and  Win.  F.  Clemson  of  New  Jersey, 
wrote  out  articles  of  association ;  the  railroad  committee 
fully  authorized  Mr.  Murray  to  raise,  as  he  proposed  to 
do,  100,000  pounds  sterling  in  England,  conditional  that 
the  company  should  raise  the  means  to  make  a  beginning 
of  the  work.  Mr.  Henry  accompanied  him  to  New  York, 
and  furnished  him  with  the  power  of  attorney,  under  seal 
expressly  made  for  the  purpose,  and  on  the  eighth  of 
August,  1836,  Mr.  Murray  sailed  for  Europe.  Mr.  Henry 
at  once  met  and  made  arrangements  with  the  Morris  Canal 
Board  of  Directors  to -raise  $150, OCX)  on  stock  subscriptions 
to  commence  the  road,  but  before  these  arrangements  had 
matured,  discouraging  news  came  from  England  through 
Mr.  Murray,  who  informed  the  company  that  the  pros- 
trated monetary  affairs  of  Europe  rendered  any  assistance 
by  him  out  of  the  question. 

To  this  meeting,  which  lasted  three  days,  in  the  village 
of  Easton,  can  be  traced  the  starting  of  the  iron- works  in 
Slocum  Hollow,  whose  varied  and  wide-spread  prosperity 
have  animated  the  entire  domain  of  the  Lackawanna.1 

The  first  iron-works  in  Seranton  after  those  of  Slocums', 
were  erected  in  1840.  In  the  summer  of  1842,  after  the 
artificers  gathered  around  the  Seranton  furnaces  had 

1  See  History  of  Sc    nton. 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  387 

learned  to  smelt  iron  with  the  lustrous  anthracite,  the 
directors  of  the  railroad  held  only  annual  meetings. 
Drinker  and  Henry  had  each  expended  nearly  their  en- 
tire resources  to  fructify  a  project  whose  magnitude  found 
no  place  or  conception  in  the  public  mind ;  this  being 
done  in  vain,  postponed  further  sacrifices  and  efforts  to 
stretch  the  iron  fiber  from  river  to  river,  until  greater 
wants  from  the  sea-board  came  up  to  the  coal  heaps,  and 
established  mutual  confidence  instead  of  general  distrust. 

The  simple  acquisition  of  Slocum  Hollow,  in  1840,  by  a 
New  Jersey  company,  had  but  little  interest  outside  of 
parties  concerned  in  the  purchase.  Who  were  taxed  for 
the  rough  pasture-land  cleared  on  Roaring  Brook,  none 
cared  to  inquire.  Its  purchase,  however,  originally  sug- 
gested by  Mr.  Henry  with  especial  reference  to  the  fur- 
therance of  Drinker's  road,  favored  that  result  sooner 
than, was  anticipated.  With  the  concentration  and  expan- 
sion of  capital  here  at  this  time,  a  business  was  generated 
which  called  for  a  better  communication  with  the  sea- 
board than  the  ox-team  or  the  sluggish  waters  of  a  canal 
frozen  up  at  least  six  months  of  every  year. 

Col.  Scranton,  in  the  simplicity  of  whose  character  the 
whole  country  acquiesced  and  felt  proud,  representing 
the  interests  of  the  iron-makers  in  Scranton,  yet  willing  to 
give  power  to  a  measure  full  of  public  good,  conceived  the 
project,  in  1847,  of  opening  communication  from  the  iron- 
works northward  to  the  lakes  by  a  locomotive  instead  of 
a  gravity  road  run  by  plane,  stationary  engine,  and  level, 
as  Drinker's,  Meredith's,  and  the  Leggett  charters  all  con- 
templated. The  charter  of  the  last-named  road,  kept  alive 
by  the  influence  of  Dr.  Andrew  Bedford,  Thomas  Smith, 
Nathaniel  Cottrill,  and  other  spirited  gentlemen,  was  pur- 
chased by  the  "  Scranton  Company"  in  1849,  by  the  sug- 
gestion of  Colonel  Scranton.  A  survey  was  made  the 
same  year  ;  the  road  was  commenced  in  1850. 

For  the  purpose  of  giving  favor  and  strength  to  a  proj- 
ect unable  to  make  its  way  to  a  practical  solution  without 


388  IIISTOKY   OF   THE 

capital  from  abroad,  a  road  was  chartered  in  April,  1849, 
to  run  from  the  Delaware  Water  Gap  to  some  point  on  the 
Lacka wanna  near  Cobb's  Gap,  called  "The  Delaware  and 
Cobb's  Gap  Railroad  Company."  The  commissioners, 
Moses  W.  Coolbaugh,  S.  AV.  Schoomaker,  Thos.  G rattan, 
II.  M.  Lebar,  A.  Overiield,  I.  Place,  Ben).  V.  Rush, 
Alpheus  Hoi  lister,  Samuel  Taylor,  P.  Starburd,  Jas.  II. 
Stroud,  II.  Bingham,  and  W.  Nyce,  lield  their  iirst  meet- 
ing at  Stroudsburg,  December  26, 1850,  choosing  Col.  Geo. 
AV.  Scranton  president. 

The  northern  division  of  "The  Lacka  wanna  and  AArest- 
ern  Railroad  Company,"  carried  by  genius  and  engineer- 
ing skill  for  sixty  miles  over  the  rough  uplands  distin- 
guishing the  country  it  traverses  from  Scranton  to  Great 
Bend,  was  opened  for  business  in  October,  1851,  thus  ena- 
bling the  inhabitants  of  the  valley  to  reach  New  York  by 
a  single  day's  ride  instead  of  two,  as  before. 

Travel  and  traffic,  hitherto  finding  its  way  from  the 
basins  of  AAryoming  and  the  Lackawanna  to  Middletown 
or  Narrowsburg  by  stage,  and  thence  along  the  unfinished 
Erie,  now  diverged  westward,  via  Great  Bend,  sixty  miles 
away,  before  apparently  beginning  a  journey  eastward  to 
New  York.  This  unphilosophical  and  wasteful  manner 
of  groping  among  the  hills  in  the  wrong  direction  before 
starling  for  New  York,  directed  the  intelligence  of  the 
mass  toward  the  purpose  of  Col.  Scranton,  of  planing  a 
continuous  roadway  direct  to  New  York,  via  the  cele- 
brated Delaware  AVater  Gap. 

The  original  charter  of  Drinker's  railroad  was  pur- 
chased of  him  in  18,53,  by  the  railroad  company,  for 
$1,000.  Immediately  after  this,  a  joint  application  was 
made  by  the  "Delaware  and  Cobb's  Gap  Railroad  Com- 
pany," and  the  "Lackawanna  and  AATestern  Railroad 
Company,"  for  an  act  of  the  Legislature  for  their  consoli- 
dation, which  was  granted  March  11,  1853,  and  the  union 
consummated  under  the  present  name  of  "The  Delaware, 
Lackawanna,  and  AVestern  Railroad  Company." 


LACKAWA2OTA    VALLEY. 


389 


Of  this  consolidated  road,  the  late  George  W.  Scranton 
was  unanimously  elected  President:  how  well  he  filled 


this  position  until  compelled  to  exchange  it  for  the  inva- 
lid's shelf,  let  the  movement  of  the  iron  pathway  across 


390  HISTORY    OF   THE 

a  valley  which  would  be  comparatively  idle  to-day  with- 
out it— let  the  mutually  satisfactory  adjustment  of  every 
conflicting  interest  arising  in  the  progress  of  this  great 
road — let  the  spirit  of  his  administration,  characterized 
by  qualities  both  sterling  and  comprehensive — more  than 
this,  let  the  simple  fact  that  he,  inspiring  capitalists  with 
the  same  confidence  he  himself  had  acquired  and  cher- 
ished, was  able  to  draw  forth  the  wherewithal  to  complete 
a  road  deriving  its  origin  and  vigor  from  him,  bear  ample 
and  praiseworthy  testimony. 

The  vast  business  of  this  road,  which  in  the  year  of 
1868  carried  1,728,785.07  tons  of  anthracite,  requires  one 
hundred  locomotives,  about  five  thousand  coal-cars,  and 
gives  emplo37ment  to  over  5,000  men.  Its  total  disburse- 
ments at  Scranton  alone,  through  II.  A.  Phelps,  the  cour- 
teous paymaster  of  the  road,  amounted,  during  the  last 
3rear,  to  over  $4,000,000,  while  a  considerable  sum  diffused 
itself  through  the  treasury  department  in  New  York. 

The  same  efficiency  and  ability  with  which  lion.  John 
Brisbin  acquired  popularity  as  the  president  of  the  great 
primitive  locomotive  railroad  in  the  Lackawanna  Valley, 
from  1856  to  1867,  has  been  continued  and  even  augmented 
by  Samuel  Sloan,  Esq.,  its  present  vigilant  president,  and 
formerly  the  presiding  officer  of  the  Hudson  River  Kail- 
road,  whose  admirable  management  of  the  interests  of  the 
Delaware.  Lackawanna,  and  Western  Railroad,  has  placed 
it  upon  a  basis  reliable  and  remunerative,  and  given  it  a 
character,  even  beyond  the  States  it  traverses,  enjoyed  by 
few,  if  any,  railroads  in  the  country. 

The  lease  of  the  Morris  and  Essex  road  by  the  Dela- 
ware, Lackawanna,  and  AVestern,  for  an  almost  indefinite 
term  of  years,  establishes  more  intimate  relations  between 
the  Lackawanna  Valley  and  the  sea-board  than  ever 
enjoyed  before,  and  marks  an  era  in  the  history  of  coal 
transportation,  second  only  in  importance  to  the  concep- 
tion of  the  original  gravity  railroad  stretched  like  a  rain- 
bow over  the  Moosic  in  1826-8  by  W  lifts  brothers. 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  393 

Hitherto,  the  former  road,  vigorous  with  local  traffic, 
strove  only  to  compete  with  a  diverse  railway  for  doubt- 
ful dividends,  without  a  wisli  to  advance  or  retard  the 
welfare  of  the  valley.  By  a  stroke  of  policy  seldom 
surpassed  in  the  grandeur  of  its  results,  all  this  was 
changed  in  January,  1869,  by  the  practical  foresight  of 
President  Sloan  and  his  associates.  The  consolidation  of 
these  two  roads  gives  a  future  interest  to  the  Delaware, 
Lackawanna,  and  Western  road  far  beyond  the  apprecia- 
tion of  the  hour.  It  abbreviates  distance,  offers  a  con- 
tinuous and  controllable  rail  from  the  mines  to  New 
York,  increases  the  value  and  tonnage  of  the  road  almost 
fourfold,  while  the  travel  over  it  for  all  time  to  come 
will  make  one  steady,  living  stream  of  various  lineage 
and  faith,  steady,  remunerating,  and  thus  commemorate 
the  wisdom  of  the  men  who  inaugurated  the  movement. 
The  superintendency  of  the  Morris  and  Essex  division  of 
the  line  has  fallen  into  the  experienced  hands  of  Hon. 
John  Brisbin. 

THE    LACKAWANNA  AND    BLOOMSBUEG    RAILROAD. 

After  the  locomotive  railroad  from  the  Lackawanna 
Valley  had  become  a  fixed  fact  by  the  genial  efforts  of 
those  to  whom  its  failure  or  its  success  had  been  intrusted, 
other  roads  began  to  spring  into  a  charter  being.  Among 
such  was  the  Lackawanna  and  Bloomsburg  Railroad.  An 
act  incorporating  this  company  was  passed  in  April,  1852, 
but  not  until  some  valuable  and  essential  amendments  were 
obtained  for  the  charter  the  next  year,  by  the  able  efforts 
of  one  of  the  members  of  the  Pennsylvania  Legislature — 
Hon.  A.  B.  Dunning — did  it  possess  any  available  vitality. 
This  road,  running  from  Scranton  to  Northumberland,  is 
eighty  miles  in  length,  passing  through  the  historic  valley 
of  Wyoming,  where  the  poet  Campbell  drew,  in  his  Ger- 
trude, such  pictures  of  the  beautiful  and  wild.  It  also 
passes  along  the  Susquehanna,  over  a  portion  of  the  old 


394r  HISTORY    OP    THE 

battle-ground,  where,  in  1778,  a  small  band  of  settlers 
marched  forth  from  Forty  Fort,  in  the  afternoon,  to  fight 
the  spoilers  of  their  firesides,  and  where,  after  the  battle, 
the  long  strings  of  scalps  dripping  from  the  Indian  belts, 
and  the  hatchets  reddened  with  the  slain,  told  how  sore 
had  been  the  rout,  and  how  terrible  the  massacre  that  fol- 
lowed. The  dweller  in  wigwams  has  bid  a  long  farewell 
to  a  region  so  full  of  song  and  legend,  and  where  can  be 
found  the  one  to-day  who,  as  he  looks  over  the  old  plan- 
tation of  the  Indian  Nations,  once  holding  their  great 
council  fires  here,  upon  the  edge  of  the  delightful  river, 
surrounded  by  forest  and  inclosing  mountain,  can  won- 
der that  they  fought  as  fights  the  wild  man  with  war- 
club  and  tomahawk,  to  regain  the  ancient  plains  of  their 
fathers  ? 

Wyoming  Valley,  taken  as  a  whole,  compensates  in  the 
highest  degree  for  the  trouble;  of  visiting  it.  The  grand 
beauty  of  the  old  Susquehanna  and  the  sparkling  current 
of  its  blue  waters  nowhere  along  its  entire  distance  ap- 
pears to  better  advantage  than  does  it  here.  Along  the 
Po  or  the  Rhine,  there  loom  up  the  gray  walls  of  some 
castle  dismantled  and  stained  with  the  blood  of  feudal 
conflict ;  here  on  the  broad  acres  of  Wyoming  turned  into 
culture,  humanity  wears  a  smile  nowhere  more  sweet  or 
lovely. 

The  tourist  who  wishes  to  visit  this  truly  interesting  val- 
ley, can  step  into  the  cars  of  the  Lehigh  and  Susquehanna, 
or  the  Lacka  wanna  and  Bloomsburg  Kail  road  Company,  at 
Scranton,and  in  twenty  minutes  look  ''On  Susquehanna' 8 
side,  fair  Wyoming  !"  Across  the  river,  half  a  mile  from 
Campbell's  Ledge,  near  the  head  of  the  valley,  is  seen  the 
battle-ground.  About  three  miles  below  Pittston,  left  of 
the  village  of  Wyoming,  rises  from  the  plain  a  naked 
monument — an  obelisk  of  gray  masonry  sixty-two  and  a 
half  feet  high,  which  commemorates  the  disastrous  after- 
noon of  the  third  of  July,  1778.  Near  this  point  reposes 
the  bloody  rock  around  which,  on  the  evening  of  that  ill- 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  395 

fated  day,  was  formed  the  fatal  ring  of  savages,  where  the 
Indian  queen  of  the  Senecas,  with  death-mall  and  "battle- 
ax,  dashed  out  the  brains  of  the  unresisting  captives.  The 
debris  of  Forty  Fort,  the  first  fort  built  on  the  north  side 
of  the  Susquehanna  by  the  Connecticut  emigrants,  in  1769, 
is  found  a  short  distance  down  the  river  from  this  rock. 

The  Lackawanna  and  Bloomsburg  Railroad,  while  it  is 
a  valuable  auxiliary  to  the  Delaware,  Lackawanna,  and 
Western  Railroad,  in  whose  interests  it  is  operated,  en- 
joyed all  the  advantages  of  travel  between  central  Penn- 
sylvania and  the  Lackawanna  Valley  until  the  Lehigh 
and  Susquehanna  and  the  Lehigh  Valley  railroads,  bound- 
ing over  the  mountain  with  the  celerity  and  speed  of  a 
deer,  alienated  a  portion  of  the  trade  and  travel. 

Having  the  advantage  of  collieries  with  an  aggregate 
yearly  capacity  of  a  million  tons  of  coal,  threading  its  way 
along  the  green  belt  of  the  Susquehanna  over  rich  beds 
of  iron  ore,  worked  in  Danville  by  ingenious  artificers 
who  have  adopted  science  as  their  patron,  it  "\fill  ever 
stand  prominent  among  the  railroads  of  the  country. 

While  the  Delaware,  Lackawanna,  and  Western  Rail- 
road, with  its  greater  length  of  thirty-three  miles,  carried 
187,583  passengers  during  the  year  1867,  the  Lackawanna 
and  Bloomsburg  transported  269,564 — an  excess  of  81,981 
persons. 

No  railroad  in  the  country  of  its  length,  lined  with 
scenery  always  exhilarating,  would  better  repay  the  visit 
of  a  few  days  in  summer  or  autumn,  than  will  this.  It  is, 
in  fact,  all  picturesque,  while  portions  of  it  are  really 
magnificent.  Thundering  along  the  border  of  the  river 
and  the  canal,  at  a  rate  of  thirty  miles  an  hour,  a  glimpse 
is  now  caught  and  then  lost,  of  old  gray  mountain  crags 
and  glens,  covered  with  forest  just  as  it  grew — of  sleepy 
islands,  dreaming  in  the  half-pausing  stream — of  long, 
narrow  meadows,  stretched  along  with  sights  of  verdure 
and  sounds  of  life,  and  now  and  then  a  light  cascade, 
tuned  by  the  late  rains,  conies  leaping  down  rock  after 


390  HISTORY    OF    TIIR 

rock,  like  a  ribbon  floating  in  the  air !  How  the  waters 
whiten  as  they  come  through  the  tree-tops  with  silver 
shout  from  precipice  to  precipice  in  the  bosom  of  some 
rock,  cool  and  fair-lipped  !  The  scenery  is  especially 
grand  at  Nanticoke — the.once  wild  camp-place  of  the  Nan- 
ticokes — where  Wyoming  Valley  terminates,  and  where 
the  noble  river,  wrapped  up  in  the  majesty  of  mountains, 
glides  along  as  languidly  as  when  the  red  man  in  his  nar- 
row craft  shot  over  the  ripple. 

Mr.  James  Archibald,  life-long  in  his  earnest  devotion 
to  the  interests  of  the  Lackawanna  Valley,  is  president  of 
the  road. 

SKETCH    OF    THE    EARLY    HISTORY    OF    THE    LEIIIGH    AND 
8USQUEIIAXXA    RAILROAD. 

This  road,  running  from  Providence  to  Easton,  a  dis- 
tance of  120  miles,  threads  a  section  of  country  surpassed 
by  no  other  in  the  State  for  the  grandeur  of  its  scenery  or 
the  interest  of  its  history. 

When  the  Indian  civil izers  first  began  to  fraternize  with 
the  sachems  of  the  Lehigh  at  Fort  Allen  or  Gnadenhutten 
(now  Weissport)  in  1746,  all  knowledge  of  anthracite  coal 
was  so  limited,  that  the  word  "coal"  was  noted  upon 
but  a  single  map  within  the  Province  of  Pennsylvania. 
The  casual  discovery  of  coal,  half  a  century  later,  near 
this  settlement,  gave  fetal  life  to  the  Lehigh  Coal  and 
Navigation  Company,  and  a  prominence  to  the  history 
of  this  region  riot  otherwise  enjoyed. 

At  the  confluence  of  the  Ma-ha-noy  (the  loud,  laughing 
vstream  of  the  Indian)  with  the  Lehigh,  this  fort  was 
located,  eighteen  miles  above;  Bethlehem,  forty  miles  by 
the  warriors'  trail  from  Teedyuscung's  plantation  at 
Wyoming.  It  was  the  first  attempt  of  the  whites  to 
carry  civilization  into  the  provincial  acquisitions  of  Penn 
above  the  Blue  Mountain.  Why  a  region  so  rough  in  its 
general  exterior  should  have  been  chosen  for  a  sheltering 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  397 

place,  can  be  accounted  for  upon  no  other  theory  than1 
that  the  gray  rock  here  bordering  the  Lehigh,  took  the 
place  in  memory  of  the  Elbe  in  their  fatherland  emerging 
from  the  crags  of  the  Alps. 

This  place,  often  visited  by  sachem  and  chief,  whom 
the  missionaries  first  conciliated,  then  endeavored  to 
Christianize,  "  numbered  500  souls  in  1752." 1  Braddock's 
defeat,  two  years  later,  opened  the  forest  for  the  uplifted 
tomahawk.  Some  of  the  Six  Nations,  exchanging  wam- 
pum and  whiffs  of  the  calumet  with  their  Moravian 
brothers,  danced  the  war-dance  before  Vaudreuil,  Gover- 
nor of  New  France  (New  York  State).  "  We  will  try  the 
hatchet  of  our  fathers  on  the  English,"  said  the  chiefs  at 
Niagara,  "  and  see  if  it  cuts  well."2 

The  obliteration  of  the  village,  with  the  death  or  expul- 
sion of  its  inmates,  January  1,  1756,  attested  the  trial  of 
both  fire-brand  and  hatchet. 

After  a  lump  of  coal  found  near  Mauch  Chunk,  in  1791, 
.oy  Ginther,  had  been  analyzed  and  pronounced  as  such 
by  the  savans  of  Philadelphia,  the  following  persons, 
Messrs.  Hillegas,  Cist,  Weiss,  Henry,  and  others,  associ- 
ated themselves  together,  without  charter  or  corporation, 
as  the  "  Lehigh  Coal  Mine  Company,"  for  the  purpose 
of  transporting  coal  to  Philadelphia,  in  1792.  They  pur- 
chased land,  cut  a  narrow  road  for  the  passage  of  a 
wagon  from  the  mine  to  the  river,  and  sent  a  few  bushels 
of  anthracite  coal  to  Philadelphia  in  canoes  or  "dug-outs." 
None  could  be  sold  ;  little  given  away.  Col.  Weiss,  the 
original  owner  of  the  land,  spent  an  entire  summer  in 
diffusing  huge  saddle-bags  of  coal  through  the  smith- 
shops  of  Allentown,  Bethlehem,  Easton,  and  other  places* 
From  motives  of  personal  friendship,  a  few  persons  were 
induced  to  give  it  a  trial,  with  very  indifferent  success. 

Under  the  sanction  of  legislative  enactment,  some 
$20,000  was  expended  to  prepare  the  Lehigh  for  naviga 

1  Miner's  Wyoming,  p.  41.          *  Vaudreuil  to  the  Minister,  July  13,  175T. 


398  HISTORY    OF    THE 

tion.  No  more  coal,  however,  was  carried  down  the 
stream  until  1805,  when  AVilliam  Turnbull,  by  the  aid  of 
an  ark,  floated  some  200  or  300  bushels  to  Philadelphia. 
As  the  coal  extinguished  rather  than  improved  the  lire, 
the  great  body  of  citizens  refused  to  buy  or  make  further 
attempt  to  burn  it,  or  be  imposed  upon  by  the  black 
stuff. 

Messrs.  Rowland  and  Butland  were  the  next  to  lease 
the  mines,  and  fail. 

The  success  of  Jesse  Fell,  of  Wilkes  Barre,  in  1808,  of 
burning  coal  in  a  common  grate,  led  two  of  the  representa- 
tive men  of  the  day,  Charles  Miner  and  Jacob  Cist,  to 
lease  the  Ginther  mine  in  1814,  with  a  view  of  shipping 
coal  to  Philadelphia. 

On  the  9th  of  August  of  this  year,  the  first  ark-load  of 
coal  started  from  Mauch  Chunk.  "The  stream,"  writes 
Miner,  "wild,  full  of  rocks,  and  the  imperfect  channel 
crooked,  in  less  than  eighty  rods  from  the  place  of  start- 
ing the  ark  struck  on  a  ledge,  and  broke  a  hole  in  her 
bow.  The  lads  stripped  themselves  nearly  naked,  to  stop 
the  rush  of  water  with  their  clothes.  At  dusk  they  were 
at  Easton,  fifty  miles." 

The  impetuous  character  of  the  river,  untamed  by  art, 
and  the  absence  of  any  demand  for  coal,  induced  these 
pioneers  to  retire  from  the  Mauch  Chunk  coal-mines. 
"This  effort  of  ours,"  says  Charles  Miner,  "might  be 
regarded  as  the  acorn,  from  which  has  sprung  the  mighty 
oak  of  the  Lehigh  Coal  and  Navigation  Company." 

In  1817,  three  energetic  gentlemen,  Josiah  "White, 
George  F.  A.  Ilauto,  and  Erskine  Hazard,  profiting  bj' 
each  preceding  failure,  originated  the  plan  of  floating 
coal  down  the  inky,  turbulent  current  from  Mauch  Chunk 
to  the  Delaware  by  the  aid  of  slackened  water. 

From  Mauch  Chunk  to  Stoddartsville,  not  a  single 
cabin  rose  in  the  wilderness  ;  the  abandoned  warrior's 
trail  alone  intervened. 

In  1818,  the  Legislature  of  Pennsylvania  empowered 


LACKAWANN  A  GALLEY.  399 

these  gentlemen  as  the  "Lehigh  Navigation  Company," 
"  to  improve  the  navigation  of  the  river  Lehigh"  by  con- 
structing wing-dams  and  channel  walls  along  the  more 
rapid  and  shallow  portion  of  the  stream,  so  as  to  narrow 
and  contract  the  current  for  practical  purposes.  In  Octo- 
.ber,  1818,  "  The  Lehigh  Coal  Company"  built  a  road  from 
the  Lehigh  to  the  old  Ginther  mine  on  Summit  Hill. 

Arks  of  coal  were  carried  down  in  the  spring  freshet ; 
in  the  summer  months  when  water  was  low,  bear-dams 
were  constructed  from  tree-tops  and  stones,  "in  the 
neighborhood  of  Mauch  Chunk,  in  which  were  placed 
sluice-gates  of  peculiar  construction,  invented  for  the  pur- 
pose by  Josiah  White,  by  means  of  which  the  water 
could  be  retained  in  the  pool  above  until  required  for 
use.  When  the  dam  became  full,  and  the  water  had  run 
over  it  long  enough  for  the  river  below  the  dam  to  acquire 
the  depth  of  the  ordinary  overflow  of  the  river,  the  sluice- 
gates were  let  down,  and  the  boats  which  were  lying  in 
the  pools  above,  passed  down  with  the  artificial  flood."1 
Some  100  tons  of  coal  thus  found  its  way  down  the 
Lehigh  in  1818. 

The  partial  success  of  a  plan  alike  novel  and  unrelia- 
ble, led  to  a  more  systematic  slack- water  navigation  from 
Mauch  Chunk  to  Easton,  forty-five  miles. 

The  people  of  Philadelphia,  educated  reluctantly  in  the 
use  and  art  of  anthracite,  finding  this  avenue  from  the 
coal-mines  inadequate  to  the  demands  of  commerce,  lent 
a  hand  to  calm  the  swift  waters  of  the  Lehigh  for  coal 
traffic.  The  Legislature  of  the  State,  influenced  by  men 
able  to  bring  greater  political  influence  to  bear  than  this 
sterile  region  could  then  offer,  granted  to  Messrs.  White, 
Hauto,  and  Hazard,  the  privilege  of  improving  the 
navigation  of  the  Lehigh  as  far  as  White  Haven ;  reserv- 
ing, however,  the  right  of  compelling  the  company  to 
make  a  continuous  slack- water  navigation  to  Stoddarts- 

a  Henry's  •"  Lehigh  Valley." 


400  HISTORY    OF    THE 

ville,  a  sprightly  lumbering  village;  fifteen  miles  farther 
up  the  stream. 

The  Lehigh  Coal  and  Lehigh  Navigation  Company  were 
consolidated  in  the  spring  of  1820.  During  this  year  3G5 
tons  of  coal,  lowered  down  the  Lehigh  in  arks  by  some 
fifty  dams,  found  its  way  to  a  tardy  market.  A  few  years  . 
later,  400  acres  of  Ian;!  was  stripped  of  its  stately  pines 
annually  for  the  contraction  of  the  necessary  arks : 
these  were  manipulated  into  building  material  in  Phila- 
delphia, while  the  iron  was  returned  to  Mauch  Chunk  for 
repeated  use.  This  destruction  of  wood,  now  seriously 
felt,  and  the  waste  of  time  in  building  boats  for  a  single 
trip,  subsequently  led  to  a  more  practical  method  of 
navigation. 

The  slack-water  (canal)  navigation  was  opened  to 
Mauch  Chunk  simultaneously  with  the  Delaware  and 
Hudson  Railroad,  eastward  from  the  Lackawanna  Valley, 
in  1829,  to  White  Haven,  in  1835. 

As  the  Lehigh  Coal  and  Navigation  Company,  already 
embarrassed  by  the  expensive  dams  they  had  built,  could 
see  no  benefit  to  accrue  by  the  extension  of  their  works 
to  Stoddartsville,  it  asked  to  be  released  from  this  par- 
ticular part  of  the  agreement,  through  the  same  body  that 
had  so  ungraciously  imposed  it.  Objections  and  remon- 
strances poured  into  the  Legislature  from  Stoddartsville 
and  from  almost  every  township  in  the  county  of 
Luzerne.  Andrew  Beaumont,  representing  the  expression 
and  interests  of  Wyoming  Valley,  with  a  strength  and 
ingenuity  for  which  he  was  ever  remarkable,  interposed 
means  to  frustrate  the  wishes  of  the  company.  The  matter 
was  finally  compromised  ;  the  Navigation  Company  agree- 
ing to  erect  a  single  dam  on  the  stream  above  Port  Jen- 
kins, and  carry  channel  walls  and  wing-dams  from  pool 
to  pool  for  the  passage  of  rafts  and  logs  from  Stoddarts- 
ville, and  build  a  gravity  railroad  over  the  mountain  from 
WJdte  Haven  to  Wilkes  Barre.  The  Legislature  now 
withdrew  or  repealed  so  much  of  the  former  act  as 


LA.CKAWANNA    VALLEY.  401 

required  the  completion  of  the  slack-water  navigation  to 
Stoddartsville. 

The  valley  of  Wyoming  ramifying  with  competing 
railways,  gained  its  first  one  by  this  scramble  with  a  com- 
pany with  which  its  relations  have  subsequently  become 
pleasant  and  profitable.  This  railroad  was  begun  in  1837. 

A  stream,  rapid  and  treacherous  as  the  Lehigh,  passing 
for  miles  through  a  mere  fissure  of  vertical  rock,  bore 
restraint  with  deceitful  demeanor.  Danger  concentrated 
in  every  dam.  A  sudden  snow- thaw  forced  an  infuriated 
volume  down  the  Lehigh,  January  8,  1839,  at  the  expense 
of  the  company  and  their  employees  ;  on  the  same  day 
of  the  month  in  1841,  another  thaw  released  the  snow  from 
the  mountain  and  swelled  the  torrent  with  loss  of  life 
and  property  ;  the  freshet,  however,  of  1862,  resistless 
and  unparalleled  in  the  extent  of  its  ravages  upon  life 
and  property,  appalled  and  smothered  with  a  single  wave 
every  lock-house  and  its  inmates,  every  dam,  boat,  or 
bridge,  attempting  to  interrupt  its  passage.  About  300 
persons  living  along  the  river  perished  in  that  cold,  dark, 
memorable  night. 

The  Lehigh  Coal  and  Navigation  Company,  with  but 
little  left  but  the  bare  stream  exulting  over  its  liberation, 
actuated  by  humane  and  practical  impulses  as  well  as 
the  wishes  of  the  Lehigh  Valley  inhabitants,  who  every- 
where opposed  the  reconstruction  of  the  dams  because  of 
their  danger,  made  the  Lehigh  a  safer  companion  by  con- 
structing along  its  berme  bank,  or  the  debris  of  the  canal, 
a  locomotive  railroad.  While  the  immense  forest  around 
White  Haven,  slashed  into  by  the  lumberman  without 
regard  to  economy  or  foresight,  annually  assured  the  road 
considerable  traffic,  the  gravity  railway  from  Wilkes 
Barre,  terminating  here,  could  not  fairly  compete  with 
other  routes  diverging  to  -the  sea-board  from  northern 
Pennsylvania.1  Years  of  reconnoissance  of  the  interpos- 

1  LEHIGH  AND  SUSQUEHANNA  RAILROAD. — Report  of  coal  shipped  south,  for 
week  ending  Dec.  31,  1868: — 
26 


402 


HISTORY   OF   THE 


ing  mountain  enabled  the  engineers  to  descend  with  a 
locomotive  into  the  plains  of  Wyoming  triumphantly,  as 
the  Jewish  ruler  of  old  came  down  from  the  sacred  mount. 
If  there  is  grandeur  in  the  bold  outlines  of  precipice 
and  forest  in  the  coal-fields  of  Pennsylvania,  then  the 
scenery  along  the  entire  road  is  truly  exhilarating,  while 
the  view  in  ascending  or  descending  the  slope  between 
Penobscot  and  Wilkes  Barre  is  singularly  beautiful  and 
unique.  The  broad  expanse  of  Wyoming  Valley,  with 

SHIPPED  FROM  WEEK.                     TOTAL. 

Harvey  Brothers 184  1 1 

Lances'  Colliery 3,204  15 

New  England  Coal  Co 1,129  02 

Morgan  Mines 02   1 8 

Parish  &  Thomas 19,100  12 

New  Jersey  Coal  Co 356  09                18,19304 

Gaylord  Mines 245  01 

Lehijih  Luzerne  Coal  Co 220  01                  5,010  03 

Lehigh  &  Snsquehanna  Coal  Co 15  10 

Germania  Coal  Co 20,8G6  08 

Franklin  Coal  Co , 243  18 

Wilkes  Barre  C.  &  1.  Co 4,77201              335,54417 

Union  Coal  Co 2,040  07 

Mineral  Spring  Coal  Co 454  15                11,022  07 

H.  B.  milman  &  Son 10319                  2,76814 

Bowkley,  Price  &  Co 288  16                 3,808  05 

Wyoming  Coal  &  T.  Co 286  14                  4,375  16 

Henry  Colliery 35(5  02                  9,490  08 

J.  II.  Swoyer  5,405  08 

Everhart  Coal  Co 482  06                  3,40G  1 7 

Morris  &  Essex  Mut.  Coal  Co 7819 

Shawnee  Coal  Co 21914                20,29705 

Delaware  &  Hudson  Canal  Co ' 11,447  OG 

Pino  Ridge  Coal  Co 325  05                12,898  04 

Consumers'  Coal  Co 5,272  18 

Albrigliton,  Roberta  4  Co 10,COG  03 

Other  shippers 197  18                12,469  03 

Total  Wyoming  Region 8,06400  519,27919 

Total  Mauch  Chunk 4,1 18  04  49,080  15 

Total  Hazleton 49  10  332,817  06 

Total  Upper  Lehigh 2,38912  141,49906 

Grand  Total 14,621  06  1,042,683  06 

Corresponding  week  last  year 6,280  06  485,501  00 

Increase 9,34100  557,18206 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  4:03 

her  dozen  villages  sleeping  quietly  in  her  bosom : — the 
Susquehanna  making  a  low  bow  and  bend  around  Camp- 
bell's Ledge  at  the  head  of  the  valley,  dividing  the  rich 
bottom  for  twenty  miles,  before  it  gathers  in  a  measure  of 
its  beauty  and  retires  from  the  eye  at  Nanticoke,  and  the 
green  farms,  dotted  here  and  there  with  quaint  home- 
steads telling  their  story  of  strife  and  skirmish  in  olden 
time,  all  make  up  a  landscape  rarely  offered  to  the  eye  of 
the  traveler. 

Steel  rails,  stretched  over  a  great  portion  of  the  road, 
impart  a  degree  of  security  that  must  popularize  it  as  a 
great  thoroughfare.  In  fact,  the  same  far-seeing  sagacity 
that  this  pioneer  company  carried  into  the  Lehigh  Val- 
ley a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  to  secure  and  develop 
anthracite,  has  led  them  to  make  a  railroad  in  such  an 
excellent  and  thorough  manner  as  to  be  a  marvel  among 
American  railroads,  reflecting  equal  credit  upon  the  engi- 
neers and  managers  who  matured  this  great  enterprise. 

John  Leisenring,  Esq.,  of  Mauch  Chunk,  ably  filled  the 
united  position  of  superintendent  and  engineer  of  this  road 
until  the  summer  of  1868.  John  P.  Ilsley,  a  gentleman 
who  enjoyed  high  consideration  as  the  superintendent  of 
the  Lackawanna  and  Bloomsburg  for  many  years,  suc- 
ceeds Mr.  Leisenring  in  the  superintendency  of  this  road. 

HON.    GEOEGE   W.    SCBANTON. 

Col.  George  W.  Scranton  was  too  universally  known 
and  beloved  throughout  the  country  to  be  overlooked 
in  a  work  aiming  to  do  justice  to  men  who  have  gained 
glory  by  carrying  reformation  and  development  to  the 
valley  of  which  it  treats.  The  following  biographical 
sketch  of  Colonel  Scranton,  prepared  especially  for  this 
volume,  is  from  the  able  pen  of  Rev.  Dr.  GEORGE  PECK  : — 

Col.  Scranton  descended  from  John  Scranton,  who  was 
one  of  the  colony  who  settled  in  New  Haven  in  1638. 
The  Scranton  family  was  distinguished  in  the  French  and 


404  HISTORY    OF    THE 

Revolutionary  wars,  some  of  them  as  privates  and  others 
as  commissioned  officers.  Col.  Scranton  was  horn  in 
Madison,  Ct.,  May  11,  1811.  At  an  early  period  in  life, 
he  exhibited  extraordinary  qualities  both  of  intellect  and 
heart.  His  opportunities  for  an  education  were  embraced 
within  the  privileges  of  the  common  school  and  two  years' 
training  in  "Lee's  Academy." 

In  1828,  he  came  to  Belvidere,  N.  J.,  and  the  first  em- 
ployment he  obtained  was  that  of  a  teamster,  for  which 

j.         *• 

he  received  eight  dollars  per  month.  His  great  industry 
and  general  good  conduct  excited  the  attention  of  business 
men,  and  he  was  soon  employed  as  a  clerk  in  the  store  of 
Judge  Kinney,  where  his  great  business  tact  and  winning 
management  not  long  after  gained  him  the  position  of  a 
partner  in  the  concern. 

On  the  21st  of  January,  1835,  Mr.  Scranton  was  married 
to  Miss  Jane  Hiles,  of  Belvidere.  After  his  marriage,  ho 
engaged  in  farming,  in  which  business  he  continued  until 
1839.  At  this  time  Mr.  Scranton,  in  partnership  with 
his  brother  Selden,  purchased  the  lease  and  stock  of 
Oxford  Furnace,  N.  J.,  and,  contrary  to  the  predictions 
and  fears  of  their  friends,  they  succeeded  in  the  business, 
and  maintained  their  credit  through  the  season  of  embar- 
rassment to  business  which  followed  the  terrible  crash 
of  1837. 

In  1839,  Mr.  William  Henry,  being  impressed  with  the 
advantages  of  the  manufacture  of  iron  in  the  Lackawanna 
Valley,  purchased  a  large  tract,  including  what  was  called 
Slocum  JfoUoic,  or  what  is  now  the  site  of  the  city  of 
Scranton.  It  contained  "the  old  red  house,"  two  other 
small  dwellings,  and  a  stone  mill.  With  the  exception  of 
a  few  acres  of  cultivated  land,  the  tract  was  covered  with 
timber,  a  dense  undergrowth,  and  a  perfect  tangle  of 
laurel. 

The  attention  of  the  Scranton  brothers  was  attracted  to 
this  place,  and,  Mr.  Henry  not  being  able  to  comply  with 
the  conditions  of  his  purchase,  they,  in  connection  with 


LACKAWANNA   VALLEY.  407 

other  parties,  in  May,  1840,  entered  into  a  contract  for  the 
property. 

The  practicability  of  smelting  ore  by  the  agency  of  an- 
thracite coal,  as  yet  was  hardly  established  by  success- 
ful experiment.  Two  furnaces  only  now  produced  iron 
through  heat  generated  by  anthracite,  and  that  under  em- 
barrassments and  in  limited  quantities.  The  young  com- 
pany in  which  the  Scranton  brothers  were  the  leading 
spirits,  was  now  to  take  a  prominent  part  in  a  series  of 
experiments  which  were  destined  to  contribute  in  no 
small  degree  to  one  of  the  practical  arts  which  has  com- 
municated a  new  and  an  undying  impulse  to  modern 
civilization. 

The  first  experiment  was  made  in  1841,  and  proved  a 
failure  ;  the  second  was  likewise  unsuccessful,  but  in 
January,  1842,  a  successful  blast  was  made ;  others  fol- 
lowed with  increasing  encouragement.  The  practical 
difficulties  in  manufacturing  iron  by  anthracite  were  now 
considered  as  overcome,  but  the  price  that  the  triumph 
had  cost,  few  understood,  and  none  would  ever  under- 
stand, so  well  as  George  W.  Scranton.  He  was  the  genius 
which  presided  over  the  struggles  of  many  months,  and 
even  years,  of  hope  deferred  and  of  distrusting  doubt 
which  finally  ended  in  complete  success. 

The  scientific  difficulties  were  no  sooner  overcome  than 
financial  problems  were  to  be  encountered.  They  could 
make  iron,  but  how  could  they  make  it  pay  ?  The  future 
city  of  Scranton  was  a  straggling  assemblage  of  huts,  at  a 
distance  from  every  great  market,  and  without  conveni- 
ent outlet.  These  difficulties,  with  those  arising  from 
want  of  funds,  would  have  broken  the  spirits  of  ordi- 
nary men,  but  our  young  adventurers,  nothing  daunted, 
resorted  first  to  one  experiment  and  then  to  another,  until 
they  were  able  to  exclaim,  with  Archimedes,  Eureka — / 
hate  found  it.  A  bootless  effort  to  manufacture  bar-iron 
and  convert  it  into  nails  finally  gave  way  to  the  project 
of  a  rolling-mill  for  the  manufacture  of  railroad  iron. 


408  HISTORY    OF    THE 

The  great  address  of  Col.  Scranton  succeeded  with  the 
leading  men  interested  in  the  New  York  and  Erie  Kail- 
road  in  making  the  contract  to  furnish  rails  needed  by 
the  road,  at  a  lower  rate  thau  they  could  be  procured 
elsewhere,  upon  the  condition  that  the  directors  of  the 
road  would  advance  funds  to  enable  the  Scrantons  and 
company  to  proceed  with  the  business  of  making  rails. 
This  arrangement  untied  the  Gordiau  knot  of  the  Scran- 
tons'  financial  troubles. 

Success  in  the  iron  business  was  not  an  occasion  for 
Col.  Scranton  to  abate  his  energy  in  business.  The  manu- 
facture of  iron  was  but  one  of  his  great  business  projects 
— it  was  but  a  part  of  a  great  system,  which,  when  fully 
carried  out,  was  to  reform  the  entire  business  interests  of 
this  portion  of  the  country,  and  to  change  the  whole  face 
of  society.  His  plan  was  to  enlist  capital  abroad,  to  con- 
centrate it  in  the  Lackawanna  Valley,  and  then  to  create 
outlets  by  railway  east  with  North  and  South ;  and  he 
lived  to  see  his  project  succeed. 

Col.  Scranton  was  not  in  the  ordinary  sense  a  politician, 
although  he  was  a  thorough  student  of  political  economy. 
He  had  been  an  old-line  Whig,  but  for  years  had  paid 
no  attention  to  party  politics.  There  was  one  principle 
which  he  maintained  against  all  opposc?rs,  and  that  was, 
protection  to  home  industry.  Upon  this  issue  he  was 
sent  to  Congress,  in  1858,  by  a  majority  of  3,700,  from  a 
district  ordinarily  polling  2,000  Democratic  majority.  He 
directed  himself  incessantly  to  his  favorite  theme  through 
the  term,  and  was  elected  a  second  time. 

We  are  obliged  to  pass  over  a  multitude  of  interesting 
incidents  in  the  life  of  Col.  Scranton  for  want  of  space, 
and  must  now  proceed  to  a  brief  estimate  of  his  character. 
In  marking  the  character  of  a  great  man,  it  will  be  found 
that  it  is  only  a  few  qualities  which  distinguish  them 
from  other  men  and  give  them  prominence.  Such  is  the 
fact  with  the  great  and  good  man  of  whom  we  are  now 
speaking.  We  begin  with  the  great  moral  integrity  of 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  409 

the  man.  He  was  sincere — he  was  honest — his  views 
were  transparent.  When  in  Congress  he  could  get  the 
ear  of  the  most  ultra  free-traders.  "  Southern  fire-eaters  " 
would  listen  to  his  arguments  on  protection  and  free 
labor.  They  would  often  say  to  him,  "  Scranton,  we  can 
hear  you  talk,  for  we  believe  you  are  honest."  You 
might  differ  from  his  opinions,  but  you  could  not  avoid 
believing  in  the  man.  His  zeal  was  that  of  conviction^ 
His  heart  was  upon  the  surface — it  was  ''known  and 
read  of  all  men." 

His  energy  was  inexhaustible.  He  never  yielded  to 
discouragements,  or  acknowledged  a  total  defeat.  He 
sometimes  failed,  but  always  tried  again ;  and,  if  neces- 
sary, again  and  again,  and  triumphed  at  last.  He  often 
spent  the  night  in  concocting  a  scheme,  and  early  dawn 
found  him  upon  the  path  of  its  execution.  Due  time 
usually  brought  success,  but  delay  never  staggered  him. 
He  was  fastened  to  his  purpose,  like  Prometheus  to  the 
rock,  and  there  he  hung,  until  mountains  of  difficulty 
melted  away,  and  the  sun  of  success  illuminated  his  path. 
A  man  of  less  hope  would  have  been  despondent  where 
he  was  confident,  and  one  of  a  weaker  will  would  have 
fainted  when  he  was  firm  as  a  rock. 

Another  trait  of  character  holds  the  highest  position. 
Col.  Scranton  had  the  rare  faculty  of  impressing  Ms  own 
ideas  upon  the  minds  of  other  men.  This  power  depends 
upon  an  assemblage  of  qualities.  An  honest  expression 
is  essential  to  it.  This  expression  means  confidence.  A 
sympathetic  nature.  His  earliest  sympathy  in  return, 
and  sympathy  exercises  a  marvelous  control  over  the 
judgment.  Draw  a  man  into  sympathy  with  your  feel- 
ings and  wishes,  and  you  can  lead  him  wherever  you 
please.  Blandness  of  manner  is  another  attribute  of  this 
great  power.  A  pleasant  countenance,  a  happy  face,  has 
more  power  than  logic.  Good  conversational  powers  is 
of  the  first  importance  in  this  enumeration.  There  must 
be  definiteness  of  view,  lucidness  of  description,  brevity: 


410  HISTOr.Y    OF    THE 

in  the  statement  of  facts,  naturalness  and  beauty  in  the 
illustrations,  command  of  language,  perfect  ease  in  man- 
ner, and  an  expression  of  confidence  both  in  your  cause 
and  in  your  success.  You  must  never  for  a  moment 
doubt  the  good  sense  and  receptibility  of  the  party  you 
would  win  over.  All  these  attributes  of  character  Col. 
Scranton  possessed  in  an  eminent  degree. 

The  crowning  glory  of  Col.  Scranton' s  character  was 
that  he  was  a  true  Christian.  All  who  knew  him  acknow- 
ledged this.  His  conversation  and  his  manners  were 
those  of  a  true  Christian  gentleman.  He  lived  beloved, 
and  died  regretted  by  all.  His  great  mental  labors  under- 
mined his  naturally  sound  constitution,  and  in  the  midst 
of  his  usefulness,  and  at  the  zenith  of  his  fame,  he  was 
called  to  his  reward. 

THE  LEHIGH  VALLEY  RAILROAD. 

A  wild  ridge  of  rock  and  forest  twenty  miles  in  width, 
cuts  off  the  Lehigh  from  the  Lackawanna,  and  forms  the 
line  of  demarkation  between  the  great  northern  anthracite 
coal-basin  and  the  first  southern  or  Schuylkill  coal  district 
of  Pennsylvania.  For  many  years  it  served  the  purposes 
of  the  hunter  and  the  lumberman,  and  frowned  on  daily 
intercourse  between  the  people  of  the  two  sections  of 
country. 

The  first  road  to  greet  the  Lehigh  with  an  iron  rail  was 
the  Lehigh  Valley  Railroad.  While  it  crosses  but  a  mere 
edge  of  the  Lackawanna  Valley  whose  commerce  it  aims  to 
reach  and  partake,  it  has,  by  its  immense  traffic  and  the 
admirable  management  of  its  interests,  formed  for  itself 
a  character  well  known  in  the  two  valleys  it  connects  and 
traverses. 

This  great  road,  incorporated  in  1846,  under  the  name 
of  the  Delaware,  Lehigh,  Schuylkill,  and  Susquehanna 
Railroad,  languished  for  years  simply  because  the  idea 
was  generally  accepted,  that  the  rocky  chasm,  washed 


BY  JOHN  SARTA1N.  — PHIL : 


O  N  *  A  S '  A 


LACK  AW  ANNA    VALLEY. 


413 


sometimes  rudely  by  the  Lehigh,  could  be  by  no  possi- 
ble legislation  or  engineering  turned  to  any  practical 
railroad  account.  A  bare  organization  of  officers  of  the 
contemplated  road  existed  from  1846  until  1851,  up  until 
which  time  $444. 37£  had  been  expended  conjointly  in  sur- 
veying the  route  and  building  a  fraction  of  a  mile  of  the 
road  merely  for  the  protection  of  its  charter.  No  dis- 
tinctive step  toward  smoothing  the  Lehigh  ledges  for  a 
locomotive  was  undertaken  until  those  elements  of  a 
positive  and  substantial  character,  which  were  introduced 
more  especially  by  Hon.  James  M.  Porter,  of  Easton,  and 
Hon.  Asa  Packer,  of  Mauch  Chunk,  began  to  be  devel- 
oped and  felt. 

In  1833,  Asa  Packer,  a  young,  ambitious  boy,  born  in 
Connecticut  in  1805,  moved  into  Mauch  Chunk  from  the 
sap-woods  of  Susquehanna  County,  Pennsylvania,  with  a 
single  jack-plane,  hammer,  handsaw,  and  a  suit  of  rustic 
homespun,  as  his  whole  inheritance.  He  had  neither  friend 
nor  acquaintance  in  the  village,  but  being  a  man  of  clear 
discernment,  excelling  in  the  art  of  industry  and  frugality, 
distinguished  for  sobriety  and  sober  sense,  he  devoted 
himself  zealously  to  various  industrious  pursuits,  until 
he  became  well  known  as  one  of  the  most  efficient  business 
men  in  the  State,  and  rose  rapidly  in  the  confidence  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  Lehigh  Valley,  whom  he  served 
on  the  bench  and  in  two  successive  Congresses.  Such 
was  the  man  whose  earnest  qualifications  inspired  this 
then  unpopular  project  with  organic  life  and  triumph, 
and  whose  liberality,  exercised  in  the  broadest  spirit, 
gave  to  the  public  an  institution  of  learning  which  will 
transmit  the  name  of  Packer  down  to  all  time. 

"On  the  31st  of  October,  1851,"  writes  Mr.  Henry,  in 
his  interesting  history  of  the  Lehigh  Valley,  "Asa  Pack- 
er became  the  "purchaser  of  a  large  amount  of  the  stock 
which  had  been  subscribed,  and  commenced  efforts  to  get 
additional  stock  subscribed  and  the  road  constructed. 
On  the  13th  of  September,  1852,  Robert  H.  Sayre  was 


414  HISTORY   OF   THE 

appointed  chief  engineer  for  the  construction  of  the  road ; 
and  on  the  27th  of  November,  1852,  Judge  Packer  sub- 
mitted a  proposition  for  constructing  the  railroad  from 
opposite  Mauch  Chunk,  where  it  would  intersect  the  Bea- 
ver Meadow  Railroad,  to  the  river  Delaware  at  Easton, 
where  it  would  intersect  the  New  Jersey  Central  Rail- 
road and  the  Belvidere  Delaware  Railroad  for  a  consid- 
eration, to  be  paid  in  the  stock  and  bonds  of  the  company, 
which  was  accepted  by  the  stockholders,  at  a  meeting  in 
which  all  the  stockholders,  representing  5,150  shares  of 
stock,  were  present. 

"  On  the  7th  of  January,  1853,  the  name  of  the  company 
was  changed  by  act  of  Assembly  to  that  of  the  Lehigh 
Valley  Railroad  Company,  and  on  the  10th  of  that  month, 
James  M.  Porter  was  re-elected  president,  John  N.  Hutch- 
inson,  secretary  and  treasurer,  and  John  N.  Hutchinson, 
Wm.  Hackett,  Wm.  H.  Gatzmer,  Henry  King,  John  T. 
Johnston,  and  John  O.  Sterns,  managers. 

"Although  the  formal  contract  witli  Judge  Packer  for 
the  construction  of  the  road  was  not  signed  until  the  12th 
of  February,  1853,  yet  he  began  the  work  immediately 
after  the  acceptance  of  this  offer,  on  the  27th  of  Novem- 
ber, 1852,  by  commencing  the  deep  rock  cut  at  Easton. 
The  work  was  prosecuted  with  vigor  by  Judge  Packer 
himself,  at  some  of  the  hardest  cuts,  and  by  sub-contrac- 
tors at  other  places,  until  its  completion,  September,  1855. 

"  Judge  Packer,  in  the  construction  of  this  road,  encoun- 
tered great  difficulties  and  embarrassments,  from  the  rise 
in  the  price  of  provisions  and  necessaries  for  the  hands— 
the  sickliness  of  some  of  the  seasons,  the  failure  of  sub- 
contractors and  the  necessary  re-letting  the  work  at  ad- 
vanced prices,  and  the  difficulty  of  raising  money  upon 
and  disposing  of  the  bonds  of  the  company,  from  the 
stringency  of  the  money  market ;  but,  with  an  energy 
and  perseverance  seldom  met  with,  he  worked  through 
it  all." 

A  trifle  less  than  15,000,000  tons  of  anthracite  coal  was 


LACXAWANNA   VALLEY. 


415 


the  entire  shipment  within  the  United  States  during  the 
year  1867.  An  aggregate  of  4,088,537  tons  of  this  amount 
was  taken  from  the  Wyoming  coal-basin,  a  portion  of 
which,  2,080,156  tons,  swelled  the  tonnage  of  this  young 
giant  railroad.1  2,603,102  tons  of  anthracite  found  its 
way  over  the  Lehigh  Valley  road  during  the  year  1868, 
being  an  increase  of  522,956  tons. 

1  Some  idea  from  whence  this  road  derives  its  coal  tonnage  can  be  had  by  ref- 
erence to  the  following  report  for  a  single  week. 

LEIIIGH  VALLEY  RAILROAD. — Report  of  coal  transported  over  the  above  road 
for  the  week  ending  December  26,  18C8. 

FROM  WYOMING  REGION.  WEEK.  TOTAL. 

Tons.  Cwt.  Tons.  Cwt. 

Franklin  Coal  Co 1,46102  4,50217 

Audenreid  Imp._&  C.  Co 

Lehigh  &  Susquehanna  Coal  Co 

Germania  Coal  Co 

Wilkes  Barre  C.  &  I.  Co , 202  18  595  15 

Warrior  Run  Mining  Co 30712  96410 

Parrish  &  Thomas 7615 

New  Jersey  Coal  Co 202  01  1,088  10 

Union  Coal  Co 

Wyoming  Coal  &  Transportation  Co 703  14  3,442  16 

Newport  Coal  Company 

Morris  &  Essex  Mutual  Coal  Co 

Everhart  Coal  Co 

Plymouth  Coal  Co 

H.  B.  Hillman  &  Sou 41814  1,40817 

Bowkley,  Price  &  Co 

Mineral  Spring  Coal  Co 487  14  1,247  10 

Enterprise  Colliery 1,18107  4,37714 

Burroughs 472  02  729  06 

J.  H.  Swoyer. . , 

Linderman  &  Co 

Washington  Mutual  Coal  Co 

West  Pittston 73  14 

Barclay  Coal  Co 

Shawcee 698  09  934  15 

Consumers' Coal  Co 27517  1,13315 

Harvey  &  Brother 

Wyoming  Valley 44308  1,36817 

Henry  Colliery 

New  England 32916  1,26610 

Delaware  &  Hudson  Coal  Co 

Maltby  Colliery 7418  7418 

Gaylord  Colliery .. 


416  HISTORY   OF   THE 

This,  road,  originally  intended  to  connect  only  Easton 
with  Mauch  Chunk,  now  runs  up  the  Susquehaima  River 
to  Waverly,  New  York,  passing  through  some  of  the 
most  picturesque  scenery  in  the  State.  Emerging  from 
the  Lehigh  ravine,  it  traverses  the  entire  length  of  Wyo- 
ming Valley,  on  the  south  bank  of  the  river,  running 
within  a  stone' s-throw  of  the  celebrated  Monocasy  or 
u  Monockonock  Island,"  crosses  the  Lackawanna  at  its 
mouth,  and  leads  its  quiet  way  under  a  ledge  familiar 
with  the  sad,  heroic  scenes  of  Wyoming  so  touching] y 
portrayed  in  Campbell's  Gertrude,  then  follows  Gen. 
Sullivan's  route  and  the  old  Indian  pathway  from  the 
Great  Plains  to  the  plantation  of  the  dusky  queen,  whose 
memory,  cherished  only  to  be  despised,  has  been  rendered 
infamous  forever.  No  part  of  this  thoroughfare  is  desti- 
tute of  historical  reminiscence  or  interest  to  the  traveler. 

It  would  be  difficult,  and  probably  impossible,  to  find 
a  railroad  in  Pennsylvania  whose  ramifications  and  feeders 
are  more  numerous  and  important,  along  its  entire  length, 
than  this.  Forming  one  of  the  strong  links  in  the  great 
chain  of  communication  between  central  and  lower 

Chauncey  Colliery 28202  1,37218 

Fall  Creek 4505  32111 

Ravine  Colliery  P.  &  E 

Butler,  H.  S.  M 

Maryland  Anthracite 5012  266  07 

Morgan  CoLiery 

Tompkins 92  04  92  04 

Rough  <t  Ready 

A.  McJ.  Dcwitt 

Rock  Tunnell 

Butler  Colliery 207  09 

Other   Shippers 906 

Total  Wyoming  Region 7,729  15  25,500   14 

Total  Beaver  Meadow  Region 6,733  08  20,5015   19 

Total  Ila/leton  Region 14,422  16  70,50!)  06 

Total  Upper  Lehigh 15912  922  06 

Total  Mahanoy  Region 1,09510  8,81414 


Grand  Total 30,139  01  '    132,370  19 

Increase 1,614  05 


LACKAWANNA    VALLEY.  417 

Pennsylvania  and  southern  New  York,  it  derives  addi- 
tional consideration  and  strength  from  the  many  active 
railroad  tributaries  swelling  the  volume  of  its  traffic. 
Almost  every  valley  whose  drainage  fertilizes  the  Lehigh, 
rolls  its  tonnage  and  travel  into  this  road  with  a  bounteous 
hand. 

The  Wyoming  division  of  the  Lehigh  Valley  Railroad 
opens  a  new  channel  to  internal  commerce,  and,  in  the 
earnest  hands  of  its  superintendent,  Robert  A.  Packer, 
Esq.,  maintains  the  same  character  enjoyed  by  the  older 
portion  of  the  road,  and,  like  that,  cultivates  those  rela- 
tions which  connect  the  anthracite  coal-basins  of  our  State 
with  the  broad  interests  of  the  world  on  terms  of  mutual 
usefulness  and  advantage. 


INDIAN  RELIC  CONTROVERSY  BETWEEN  STEUBEN  JENKINS  AND  H. 
HOLLISTER,  RESULTING  FROM  THE  FOLLOWING  EDITORIAL  IN  THE 
"  SCRANTON  REGISTER,"  JUNE  22,  1865. 

THE  red  man  has  left  us  forever,  but  we  did  not  suppose  that 
so  many  memorials  of  a  departed  race  could  be  collected  in  the 
entire  country,  as  has  been  gathered  in  Luzerne  and  Wyoming 
counties  by  Dr.  Hollister,  of  Providence.  His  rare  cabinet  of 
Indian  relics  embraces  some  ten  thousand  implements  used  by 
them  in  peace  and  war.  Of  the  stone  kind  it  is  undoubtedly  the 
largest  in  the  world,  and  of  great  value  to  the  antiquarian.  The 
doctor  has  refused  the  modest  little  sum  of  $2,000  for  it,  from  a 
Massachusetts  college.  The  articles  are  stone,  flint,  and  burned 
clay,  tomahawks  which  have  slain  many  a  foe,  skinning  stones, 
rare  pipes  of  exquisite  workmanship,  huge  and  small  pestles, 
javelins  or  spears,  arrow-points  of  the  most  delicate  finish,  beads, 
death  malls,  quoits,  hoes,  gouges,  sling-stones,  Indian  pots, 
broken  pottery  rudely  ornamented,  rings,  birds,  amulets,  ham- 
mers, battle-axes,  war-clubs,  mortars,  stones  for  weaving  nets,  bone 
needles,  and  a  hundred  stone  contrivances  which  made  life  in  the 
wigwam  so  agreeable  to  the  poor  Indian :  all  make  up  a  collection 
really  unique,  interesting,  and  inviting  to  all,  and  more  especially 
to  the  antiquarian.  We  have  looked  the  collection  through 
repeatedly,  and  would  recommend  to  our  readers  to  call  and 
examine  them.  His  collection  is  open  and  free  to  all,  and  the 
doctor  takes  great  pleasure  in  showing  them  to  such  as  have  a 
taste  in  that  direction. 

We  would  note  here  that  there  appears  to  be  a  sort  of  rivalry 
between  the  doctor  and  Steuben  Jenkins,  Esq.,  of  Wyoming,  who 
is  said  to  possess  a  large  collection,  but  the  doctor  says  it  is  hid 
away  in  old  boxes  and  barns  in  such  a  manner  that  no  person  can 


420  APPKNDIX. 

imagine  what  a  glance  would  reveal.  Xow,  if  these  gentlemen 
will  unite  their  collections  and  place  them  alternately  at  AVilkes 
Barre  and  Scran  ton,  they  will  enable  thousands  to  see  their  inter- 
esting collections,  and  by  that  means  determine  what  the  parties 
themselves  can  not  do,  which  is  the  richest,  the  rarest,  and  the 
best.  This  is  the  only  mode  of  determining  the  question,  and  the 
determination  of  the  question  is  one  in  which  our  whole  commu- 
nity is  interested.  We  hope  they  will  consent  to  the  proposition. 


The  following  letter  explains  itself.  It  will  be  seen  that 
friend  Jenkins  is  not  to  be  stumped  out  of  the  belief  that  his 
collection  is  the  collection. — ED.  Register. 

WYOMING,  June  30,  1865. 

EDITOR  "  SCRAXTOX  REGISTER  '* — DEAR  SIR  : — I  noticed  in  your 
issue  of  the  22d  inst.  an  article  upon  the  subject  of  "  Indian 
Curiosities."  I  take  a  great  interest  in  every  thing  pertaining  to 
the  "Indians,''  and  the  relics  of  their  early  manners,  customs,  and 
arts,  and  particularly  their  stone  implements  of  husbandry,  the 
chase,  war,  etc.  I  have  been  gathering  articles  of  this  kind  for 
more  than  thirty  years  past,  from  all  parts  of  the  United  States, 
and,  as  you  suggest,  have  succeeded  in  getting  together  consider- 
able of  a  collection.  I  was  somewhat  surprised,  however,  to  learn 
that  Dr.  Ilollister,  of  Providence,  had  "  a  cabinet  embracing  some 
ten  thousand  implements,  which  is  undoubtedly  the  largest  in  the 
irorld"  Did  you  ever  calculate  how  many  "ten  thousand  "  arc? 
Did  you  ever  properly  conceive  what  the  largest  thing  in  the 
world  was  ?  Sit  down  and  think  of  it  awhile  before  you  state 
such  things,  and  do  not  let  your  imagination  run  away  with  your 
better  judgment.  I  am  afraid  you  have  been  talking  with  the 
doctor  lately  about  his  collection.  His  enthusiasm  frequently 
gets  the  better  of  him,  and  may  have  some  influence  over  you. 

Now,  I  don't  want  it  understood  that  there  is  any  rivalry 
existing  between  the  doctor  and  myself  upon  the  subject  of  the 
largest  collection.  When  I  commenced  making  my  collection,  I 
had  never  heard  of  such  a  man  as  Dr.  Ilollister.  My  object  in 
collecting  was  to  get  at  the  history  and  character  of  the  Indian 
race,  as  they  were  delineated  in  their  implements  of  husbandry, 


APPENDIX.  421 

the  chase,  war,  and  ornament,  and,  through  them,  taking  up  the 
discoveries  of  snch  things  all  over  the  earth's  surface,  endeavor 
to  trace  out  the  antiquity  and  origin  of  the  race.  Enough  has 
been  discovered  to  satisfy  those  who  have  given  the  subject  care- 
ful consideration,  that  the  whole  earth  was  once  peopled  with  a 
homogeneous  race,  who  used  stone  implements  for  all  the  pur- 
poses of  life,  which  are  similar,  and  in  many  cases  identical,  with 
those  used  by  our  Indians,  and  which  the  doctor  pretends  to 
have  found  in  such  abundance  that  he  now  has  ten  thousand 
specimens. 

I  don't  know  but  that  the  doctor  has  the  "ten  thousand" 
spoken  of.  I  don't  know  but  that  he  has  more  than  I  have.  It 
may  be  he  has.  It  may  be  he  has  the  largest  collection  in  the  world. 
It  may  be.  I  don't  wish  to  detract  from  either  the  doctor's  num- 
ber or  size.  I  have  an  offer  to  make,  however.  I  will  place  my 
collection  alongside  of  the  doctor's  in  any  hall  in  Scranton,  pro- 
vided one  large  enough  can  be  had  there,  and  will  then  leave  it 
to  the  public,  who  visit  them,  or  to  any  three  or  more  persons  the 
doctor  and  I  can  agree  upon,  to  say  which  has  the  largest  collec- 
tion— the  best  collection — the  collection  which  best  delineates  the 
Indian  character  in  every  respect,  as  mechanics,  as  husbandmen, 
as  huntsmen,  as  fishermen,  as  warriors,  as  artists,  &c.  The  one 
in  whose  favor  the  decision  is  made  shall  then  take  both  collec- 
tions. Of  course  I  should  expect  the  doctor  to  leave  out  of  his 
exhibition  every  thing  not  properly  belonging  to  a  collection  of 
that  sort — every  thing  not  legitimate.  I  would  not  want  any 
imposition  of  any  sort  practiced  upon  the  public  in  the  matter. 

I  shall  want  it  fairly  understood,  before  entering  into  compe- 
tition with  the  doctor,  that  the  judges  selected  shall  be  free  from 
prejudice  against  my  collection,  because  it  has  been  kept  in  boxes, 
sheds,  and  barns,  for  the  reason  that  it  was  too  large  to  be  kept 
in  a  pill  shop.  The  fact  is,  I  never  kept  my  collection  for  show ; 
never  made  a  show  of  it ;  nor  do  I  intend  to  do  so  very  soon, 
unless  there  is  a  point  to  be  gained  by  it,  or  a  purpose  to  be  sub- 
served. 

Can  you  get  the  doctor  to  agree  to  the  proposition  I  make  ? 
If  you  can  I  will  meet  him  at  your  office  some  time  soon,  and 
settle  the  preliminaries.  Yours,  very  respectfully, 

STEUBEN  JENKINS. 


422  APPENDIX. 

In  reply  to  Mr.  Jenkins's  letter  of  last  week,  we  make  room  for 
the  following  from  Dr.  Ilollister.  We  do  this  most  cheerfully,  as 
we  are  in  hopes  that  the  discussion  as  to  which  has  the  largest 
and  best  collection  of  Indian  relics,  will  eventuate  in  affording 
our  citizens  an  opportunity  of  becoming  judges  in  the  matter.  A 
sight  of  the  collections  is  something  to  be  desired. 

THE    INDIAN    KELIC    CONTROVERSY. 

EDITOR  "  SCRANTON  REGISTER" — DEAR  SIR  : — As  you  have  call- 
ed public  attention  toward  my  collection  of  Indian  relics,  and  as 
Steuben  Jenkins,  Esq.,  of  Wyoming,  in  your  last  paper,  questions 
the  correctness  of  your  statement,  a  word  from  me  seems  neces- 
sary. Friend  Steuben  is  a  very  good  theoretical  Indian,  and 
deserves  the  gratitude  of  all  antiquarians,  more  for  his  zeal  in 
gathering  so  many  remembrances  of  the  bravest  race  the  world 
ever  saw,  than' he  does  in  hiding  them  under  a  bushel  and  barns. 
We  occasionally  visit  Steuben  to  see  his  Indian  cabinet,  which  is 
large  and  invaluable.  He  goes  to  a  drawer,  unlocks  and  exhumes 
a  rare  tomahawk  or  two,  watching  your  throat  closely  lest  you 
might  swallow  a  pestle  or  hatchet,  and  then  he  takes  you  to  some 
secluded  corner,  and  from  an  old  box  guarded  by  cobwebs,  gives 
you  a  half-glimpse  of  some  memento  of  the  departed  race,  and 
then  to  the  shed,  where  he  draws  out-  of  barrels  many  relics,  as 
the  angler  draws  the  sturdy  bull-head  from  the  sluggish  stream. 

His  collection  is  said  to  be  magnificent,  by  those  who  have 
peeped  into  all  his  boxes  and  drawers,  but  mine  is  arranged  in  a 
"  pill  shop,"  where  anybody  can  see  it  cheerfully  and  gratuitously, 
and  it  is  too  fine  and  valuable  to  bo  hid  away  for  "  thirty  years  " 
in  obscure  nooks.  They  are  imperishable  in  their  character,  and 
mostly  made  from  stone — as  iron  and  copper  implements  of  the 
later  Indian  period  have  little  or  no  value. 

Steuben  objects  to  my  relics  being  kept  in  a  "  pill  shop,"  as  he 
calls  their  unpretending  abode,  and  yet  he  proposes  to  make  a  big 
show  in  Scranton.  Well,  suppose  we  have  one.  At  considerable 
expense  and  labor,  mine  are  now  arranged  in  Providence.  Let  his 
be  so  arranged  in  Scranton.  Or  let  the  directors  of  the  Wyoming 
fair,  this  fall  prepare  a  safe,  suitable  place  for  each  collection  to 
be  exhibited  by  Steuben  and  myself,  then  a  committee  chosen  by 
us  can  determine  which  cabinet,  by  its  size  and  variety,  gives  the 


APPENDIX.  4*23 

best  illustration  of  the  character  and  customs  of  the  wild  race, 
once  sheltered  by  our  grand  old  forests.  The  one  whose  collection 
as  a  irrand  whole  shall  be  deemed  best,  shall  receive  a  certificate 

~  ' 

or  diploma,  and  the  one  second  best,  must  pay  $50  to  the  Home 
of  the  Friendless  or  some  other  charitable  institution  in  Luzerne 
County. 

If  I  should  possibly  lose  —  (of  which  there  is  no  danger,  as 
my  collection  is  undoubtedly  the  largest  in  the  world  of  its  kind), 
I  should  have  the  pleasure  of  knowing  that  the  public  had  seen 
his  relics,  which  were  "  too  large  for  a  pill  shop,"  but  just  the  size 
for  miserish  boxes  and  remote  shed-corners. 

Aside  from  this,  it  would  not  only  bring  dollars  to  the  fair, 
but  it  would  also  diversify  the  character  of  that  concern,  which  is 
usually  made  up  mostly  by  Steuben  and  Bill  Miner.  The  first 
one  generally  contributes  a  few  bunches  of  fine  grapes,  and  the 
last  one  furnishes  a  ride  on  horseback. 

H.    HOLLISTEK. 

PROVIDENCE,  July  20,  1865. 


WYOMING,  July  22,  1865. 

EDITOR  OF  THE  "  SCRANTON  REGISTER" — DEAR  SIR  : — It  is  the 
fate  of  genius  to  be  misunderstood  and  undervalued.  Lofty  pre- 
tensions and  brusque  impudence  command  greater  consideration, 
and  insure  more  certain  rewards  than  the  mightiest  genius,  unat- 
tended with  pati'onage  or  place.  It  seems  to  be  the  fate  of  some 
men,  to  be  misapprehended  and  belittled,  because  they  stand  aloof 
from,  and,  in  their  business  pursuits  and  particularly  in  their 
recreations,  rise  above  the  ordinary  level  of  mankind.  Their 
motives  are  not  the  motives  of  other  men,  and  as  other  men  can 
not  appreciate  them,  they  generally  decry  them.  I  have  been  led 
to  these  reflections,  from  the  fact  that  since  Dr.  Hollister  and  I 
have  been  brought  before  the  public  in  your  very  able  paper,  as 
possessors  of  very  fine  collections  of  the  relics  of  the  Indian  races 
that  once  roamed  monarch  of  this  mighty  Western  world,  not  a  few 
persons  have  been  found  who  laugh  at  the  idea  that  the  collections 
are  of  real  importance  and  value.  Not  a  little  of  this  have  I 
heard  and  seen  in  my  presence,  and  I  always  feel  a  pity  for  the 
man  who  indulges  in  it — from  the  fact  that  their  views  are  on  the 


424  APPKNDIX. 

dollar  and  cent  basis.  If  they  were  dollars  that  they  could  count, 
and  there  were  "  ten  thousand  "  of  them,  they  would  hold  their 
breath  and  stare  in  mute  astonishment,  but  being  "only  ten  thou- 
sand "  relics  of  a  once  great  and  noble  people,  who  scorned  sub- 
mission to  or  affiliation  with  a  higher  type  of  their  species — they 
can  only  laugh  at  their  possessors. 

The  doctor  and  I,  it  appears,  are  fast  drifting  into  a  complica- 
tion of  affairs,  that  will  need  wise  and  cool  heads  to  unravel.  I 
proposed  to  the  doctor  an  exhibition  of  our  respective  collections, 
side  by  side,  in  some  hall  in  Scranton,  provided  one  could  be 
obtained  there  large  enough  for  the  purpose — and  the  one  having 
the  best  and  largest  collection,  by  a  decision  of  the  umpires,  to 
take  both.  This  the  doctor  declines,  but  makes  this  suggestion. 

7  OO 

He  has  at  considerable  expense  and  labor  arranged  his  collection 
in  Providence.  He  wants  me  at  considerable  expense  and  labor 
to  arrange  mine  in  Scranton,  and  then  submit  the  decision  to  the 
people,  who  visit  them.  Well,  suppose  we  do.  I  think  I  see  mine 
arranged  in  a  hall  in  Scranton,  and  then  thrown  open  to  the  public 
examination.  After  a  full  and  fair  examination  of  my  collection 
the  immense  throng  start  in  procession  to  Providence.  I  see  the 
long  procession  wending  its  way  thither,  down  by  the  sand-banks, 
past  the  cemetery,  on  by  the  mud-hole,  and  turning  the  corner, 
commence  winding  their  weary  way  up  the  high  hill  on  which 
Providence  is  seated.  The  file-leader  of  the  grand  procession 
meets  a  denizen  of  the  town,  and  inquires,  "  Where  is  the  Indian — 

''What!  have  we  an  Indian  among  us?" 

"  I  mean  where  is  the  Indian — " 

"  Exactly,  but  have  we  an  Indian  among  us  ?" 

"  Hold  a  moment,  I  mean  where  is  Dr.  Hollister's  Indian  col- 
lection." 

"  Oh,  yes,  I  understand  you  now,  you  turn  up  by  the  store, 
pass  on  down  by  the  church,  till  you  get  to  the  foundery — then  on 
the  left  you  will  find  the  doctor,  with  the  latest  story  always  out, 
his  collection  on  exhibition,  and  the  doctor  always  ready  to 
expatiate  on  its  merits,  and  declare  it  to  be  '  the  largest  in  the 
world.'  " 

Here  is  where  the  doctor  would  have  me.  Lawyers  always 
understand  this  if  doctors  don't.  They  always  think  that  the 
last  chance  at  a  jury  is  worth  twice  as  much  as  the  first.  I  know 


APPENDIX.  425 

that  it  is  generally  said  that  first  impressions  last  the  longest. 
While  lawyers  may  believe  that  first  impressions  last  the  longest, 
they  .also  believe  that  last  impressions  are  the  strongest.  The 
doctor  can't  catch  me  in  this  way. 

The  other  suggestion  made  by  the  doctor  is  to  place  our  re- 
spective collections  on  exhibition  at  the  agricultural  fair  this  fall. 
To  this  I  have  no  objection  under  proper  arrangements,  but  the 
idea  that  he  or  I  at  the  end  of  the  exhibition  shall  give  $50  to  the 
Home  of  the  Friendless,  or  to  any  other  institution,  is  the  highest 
absurdity  of  which  the  doctor  has  lately  been  guilty.      How  long 
has  the  doctor  been  engaged  in  laboring  for  other  people,  and 
then  paving  some  one  else  for  what  he  has  done  ?     I  quit  such 
things  some  time  since.     I  find  my  labors  better  appreciated,  and 
the  results  more  satisfactory  to  myself  when  I  get  paid  for  my 
labor,  than  when  I  work  for  nothing,  or  give  the  fruits  of  my 
labor  to  some  one  who  has  no  claims  upon  me  for  them.     No  !  I 
don't  go  into  arrangements  by  which  I,  at  least,  shall   labor  a 
week  or  two  for  nothing  with  the  privilege  of  throwing  in  $50  at 
the  end  of  time.     Doctor,  you  knew  you  couldn't  catch  me  with 
such  a  preposterous  proposition.     I  am  too  old  for  that,  and  you 
ought  to  have  known  better  than  to  have  proposed  it.     I  will  see 
if  some  reasonable  arrangement  can't  be  made  to  exhibit   at  the 
county  fair  this  fall,  but  I  care  nothing  about  this  myself.     I  now 
have  a  silver  cup,  awarded  to  me  by  the  Pennsylvania  State  fair, 
for  my  collections  of  Indian  relics,  as  far  back  as  1 860.     I  don't 
see  how  my  honors  would  be  added  to  by  a  diploma  from  the 
county  fair,  but  to  meet  the  doctor  I  am  willing  to  exhibit  at 
the  county  fair  this  fall  under  proper  arrangements. 

I  didn't  think  the  doctor  was  so  observant  as  to  note  the  watch- 
ful care  I  bestowed  on  my  collection  when  he  visited  it.  But  he 
watched  as  well  as  I.  The  fact  is,  Indian  relics  disappear,  when 
the  doctor  is  around,  in  a  wonderful  manner.  They  go  as  quietly 
and  as  rapidly  as  "Trout  glide  along  the  mountain  streams." 
The  doctor  knows  this,  and  the  trouble  is,  I  know  it ;  hence  my 
watchfulness  when  he  is  about. 

Very  respectfully  yours, 

STEUBEN  JENKINS. 


426  APPENDIX. 


THE    INDIAN    RELIC   CONTROVERSY. 

EDITOR  OF  THE  "SCRANTON  REGISTER" — The  Indian's  side  of 
history  has  never  yet  been  written,  only  in  traditions  perishing 
with  the  race  that  knew  them.  It  never  will  be  written,  only  in 
the  rude  stone  memorials  they  have  left  behind  them.  We  shall 
read  of  homes  reddened  by  the  tomahawk,  and  of  hearths  black- 
ened by  the  fagot,  but  not  of  the  wrongs  urging  the  wild  man  to 
defend  the  plain  -where  his  wigwam  stood.  For  one,  I  do  not  be- 
lieve that  the  same  treacherous,  thieving  savage,  rendered  des- 
perate by  misfortune  and  impoverished  by  the  whites,  emerging 
from  the  dark  passes  of  the  West,  are  like  those  whose  bones  lie 
buried  among  us.  Had  we  ever  pursued  toward  the  rod  men  that 
humane,  upright,  consistent  policy  of  Penn,  instead  of  crowding 
them  inch  by  inch  southward  and  westward  from  homes  they 
fought  hard  to  protect,  all  the  conflict  with  a  race  the  American 
nation  can  not  afford  to  lose,  would  have  ^f)een  avoided.  For  no 
race  like  this  the  world  ever  saw  before  or  will  ever  know  again. 
So  much  of  calm  courage — so  much  of  true  nobility — so  much  of 
unselfish  friendship,  could  not  be  found  in  any  other  race  or  people 
on  earth,  and  yet  these  memorials  of  another  day  and  another  race 
are  the  only  visible  evidences  we  have  among  us  of  the  former 
occupants  of  our  valleys. 

Men  whose  souls  are  built  of  wood,  and  whose  pockets  are  unc- 
tuous with  traffic,  can  form  no  idea  of  Indian  lore  and  history,  as 
taught  by  these  relics,  and  it  is  not  for  such  persons  that  Steuben 
Jenkins  immures  his  in  sheds,  or  that  mine  are  shown  to  the  world. 
Such  undervalue  them,  because  a  man  of  dollars  and  cents  can 
not  understand  their  worth  or  philosophy,  when  in  fact  each 
tomahawk  and  spear-point — each  pipe  and  battle-ax — each  and 
every  implement  of  the  earlier  Indian  stone  period  has  a  mean- 
ing and  a  language  interpreting  its  history  with  as  much 
faithfulness  as  the  hieroglyphics  along  the  Nile  tell  us  of  ancient 
times  and  glory.  If  I  had  space,  article  upon  article  could  be 
written  upon  the  part  implements  like  these  have  played  in  history 
since  Cain  swung  the  war-club  upon  his  brother  Abel ;  but  the 
purpose  of  this  article  is  to  reply  to  Steuben's  last,  and  while  I  am 
at  it  I  might  as  well  trim  up  two  or  three  limbs  on  the  tree. 

Some  New  York  plagiarist  has  just  issued  a  new  book,  which 


APPENDIX.  427 

is  sold  on  the  cars,  describing  portions  of  our  valley,  and  he  copies 
page  after  page  from  my  "  Contributions  to  the  History  of  the 
Lackawanna  Valley,"  without  a  word  of  acknowledgment  or  com- 
ment. Now  is  not  this  a  cheap  way  of  giving  interest  to  a  volume 
made  from  spoils  ?  The  Historical  Society  of  Wilkes  Barre,  whose 
cabinet  of  Indian  relics  is  even  inferior  to  that  of  Steuben's,  had. 
no  existence  until  my  little  volume  appeared,  and  my  suggestions 
urging  it  had  been  seen,  and  yet  how  little  credit  do  I  get  there. 

The  "  Nay-aug "  companies  of  Scranton  steal  my  names  as  if 
they  were  bastard  words,  and  now  brave  Stenben  comes  along  and 
presumes  to  put  in  battle-array  his  boxes  and  barns,  stuffed  with 
the  Lord  only  knows  what,  against  my  tine  Indian  collection  !  Old 
rusty  Wilkes  Barre,  how  depraved  and  pretentious  thou  art  in  thy 
decrepitude  ! 

Steuben  and  I,  however,  are  going  to  have  no  quarrel,  because 
he  is  as  generous  with  his  pen  as  he  is  covetous  of  his  Indian  traps, 
and  my  object  in  writing  has  been  to  smoke  them  out  of  their 
holes.  As  he  virtually  acknowledges  my  collection  to  be  finer 
than  his  (tin  cup  and  all  that  he  got  at  the  fair  "far  back  as  1860  "), 
there  will  be  no  necessity  for  their  exhibition  at  the  fair  this  fall, 
to  settle  this  point,  because  their  removal  would  involve  much 
expense,  beside  necessitating  the  attendance  of  several  watchmen, 
as  Steuben's  memory  is  exceedingly  detective  and  his  hands  very 
awkward  around  Indian  relics. 

In  conclusion,  I  would  say  to  my  friends,  who  have  either  read 
or  laughed  over  these  articles,  that  my  collection  (the  largest  in 
the  world  of  its  kind)  is  found  in  the  airy  village  of  Razorville, 
under  the  shadows  of  no  protecting  barn  or  box,  but  in  a  large 
office  wholly  devoted  to  their  free  exhibition  (and  to  Dr.  Hollis- 
ter's  Family  Medicines),  arranged  finely  in  glass  cases,  always 
open,  except  when  Steuben  is  known  to  be  in  town,  when  they  are 
immediately  locked,  as  I  have  observed  that  he  is  a  liberal  pro- 
vider for  those  hungry  and  mysterious  coat-pockets  of  his. 

PROVIDENCE,  August  3,  1865.  H.  HOLLISTER. 


INDIAN    EELICS. 

EDITOR  "  SCRANTON  REGISTER  " — DEAR  SIR  : — Dr.  Hollister  has 
finally  reached  the.  goal  of  his  ambition.     He  has  backed  down 


428  APPENDIX. 

entirely  from  his  lofty  pretensions  of  having  "  ten  thousand  speci- 
mens "  of  Indian  relics — "  the  largest  collection  in  the  world  " — and 
fails  in  every  way  to  respond  to  the  offers  I  made  him  to  decide 
the  question  of  the  respective  merits  of  his  collection  and  mine. 
I  here  renew  the  offers  I  have  made,  and  agree  to  give  the  doctor 
all  the  benefit  of  any  doubt  that  may  exist  in  the  minds  of  the 
persons  that  may  be  chosen  to  decide.  A  friend  of  the  doctor's, 
who  has  seen  both  collections,  says  that  the  doctor  was  foolish  for 
thinking  of  competing  with  me.  It  would  seem  that  if  that  was 
really  the  doctor's  purpose,  he  had  got  fairly  caught  at  it.  But 
his  last  article  shows  pretty  conclusively  what  the  doctor  has  been 
at  all  the  while,  and  shows,  too,  that  the  doctor  has  not  been  very 
foolish  in  the  operation.  His  object  was  to  puff  up  his  collection 
of  Indian  relics,  which  I  must  admit  is  a  very  respectable  one  for 
the  time  the  doctor  has  been  engaged  in  making  it,  and  advertis- 
ing his  Family  Medicines  and  his  History  of  the  Lackawanna  Val- 
ley, all  of  which  he  has  managed  to  do  very  cleverly  and  without 
cost.  I  feel  that  I  have  been  taken  in  a  little  by  the  doctor,  but 
you,  friend  Hill,  have  been  taken  in  and  done  for  so  much  nicer 
than  I,  that  I  can  not  but  laugh  at  your  position.  You,  a  long 
resident  of  Razorville,  knowing  the  character  of  its  inhabitants,  to 
permit  yourself  to  be  used  by  one  of  them  to  advertise  his  nos- 
trums for  nothing,  I  am  astonished  at  you.  If  I  laugh  at  your 
verdancy,  I  can  not  help  it,  and  I  hope  you  will  not  be  offended. 

I  attended  the  State  fair  at  Easton,  last  fall,  and  while  there  I 
called  upon  Dr.  Swift,  of  that  place,  who  has  a  very  large  and 
well-selected  collection  of  Indian  relics,  in  every  respect  superior 
to  Dr.  Hollister's ;  and  before  leaving,  the  doctor  gave  me  a  stone 
hammer,  found  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Ontonagon  River,  in  the 
Lake  Superior  copper  region.  This  hammer  was  made  of  a  hard 
cobble-stone,  that  would  weigh  about  three  to  four  pounds,  with 
a  groove  cut  around  it,  to  which  the  handle  was  attached  with  a 
withe.  It  was  pretty  well  battered  up  with  hard  usage.  Copper 
wedges  and  chisels  are  found  in  connection  with  the  hammer,  in 
the  ancient  workings  of  the  copper  mines  in  that  region.  One  of 
these  chisels  was  presented  to  me  last  week  by  Mr.  Chambers,  of 
Philadelphia ;  so  that  I  now  have  both  a  hammer  and  a  chisel,  both 
exceedingly  rare  and  difficult  to  be  obtained.  Dr.  Hollister,  I 
presume,  has  neither. 


APPENDIX.  420 

The  Lake  Superior  copper  region  seems  to  have  been  resorted 
to  and  worked  by  a  race  of  men  long  before  it  became  known  to 
the  white  man.  Whether  these  miners — the  mound  builders  of 
the  West,  I  have  no  doubt— and  the  Indians  of  the  country  were 
the  same  race  or  not,  is  matter  for  conjecture.  That  they  were  the 
mound  builders  who  worked  in  the  copper  mines,  I  have  no  hesitancy 
in  believing,  from  the  fact  that  hardly  a  mound  has  yet  been  explor- 
ed, in  which  something  made  of  copper  has  not  been  found.  Priest, 
in  his  "American  Antiquities,"  sa^s:  "A  vast  many  instances  of 
articles  made  of  copper,  and  some  of  silver,  have  been  met  with  in 
opening  these  mounds.  Circular  pieces  of  copper,  intended  either  as 
medals  or  breastplates,  several  inches  in  diameter,  have  been  found, 
very  much  injured  by  time."  Rev.  Robert  G.  Wilson,  D.  D.,  of 
Chillicothe,  Ohio,  furnished  the  Antiquarian  Society  within  forma- 
tion of  a  mound  which  once  stood  near  the  center  of  the  town. 
"Its  height  was  fifteen  feet,  circumference  180  feet,  composed  of 
sand.  In  excavating  this  mound,  on  a  level  with  the  surrounding 
earth,  they  found  a  human  skeleton,  overspread  with  a  mat  manu- 
factured from  weeds  or  bark,  but  greatly  decayed.  On  the  breast 
of  this  person  lay  what  had  been  a  piece  of  copper,  in  the  form  of 
a  cross,  which  had  become  verdigris." 

The  Historical  Society  of  Wilkes  Barre  have  a  copper  arrow- 
point,  which  was  found  on  the  site  of  the  fortification  which  once 
stood  on  Toby's  Creek,  in  the  borough  of  Kingston,  described  by 
Chapman  in  his  history  of  Wyoming. 

Foster  and  Whitney,  in  their  report  of  the  explorations  of  the 
Lake  Superior  copper  region,  say:  "  It  is  well  known  that  copper 
rings,  designed  for  bracelets,  are  frequently  met  with  in  the  western 
mounds.  We  have  several  of  these  relics  in  our  possession." 

Samuel  O.  Knapp,  agent  of  the  Minnesota  Company,  in  the 
spring  of  1848,  explored  an  ancient  mine  on  the  Ontonagon  River. 
He  gives  this  account  of  it :  He  found  a  depression  twenty-six 
feet  deep,  filled  with  clay  and  a  mass  of  moldering  vegetable 
matter.  When  he  had  penetrated  to  the  depth  of  eighteen  feet 
with  his  excavations,  he  came  to  a  mass  of  native  copper  ten  feet 
long,  three  feet  wide,  and  nearly ^t wo  feet  thick,  and  weighing 
over  six  tons.  On  digging  around  it,  the  mass  was  found  to  rest 
on  billets  of  oak,  supported  by  sleepers  of  the  same  material.  The 
wood  is  dark-colored,  and  has  lost  all  of  its  consistency.  A  knife 


430  APPENDIX. 

blade  may  be  thrust  into  it  as  easily  as  into  a  peat-bog.  The 
earth  was  so  packed  about  the  copper  as  to  give  it  a  firm  support. 
The  ancient  miners  had  evidently  raised  it  about  five  feet,  and 
then  abandoned  the  work  as  too  laborious.  Every  projecting  point 
was  taken  off,  and  the  exposed  surface  rendered  perfectly  smooth. 

Trees  are  found  growing  on  the  heaps  of  rubbish  thrown  out 
of  these  ancient  mines.  Mr.  Knapp  counted  three  hundred  and 
ninety-five  annular  rings  on  a  hemlock  which  he  felled  on  one  of 
these  heaps.  He  speaks  of  finding  these  stone  hammers,  the 
largest  of  which  was  12  x  5|  x  4  inches,  and  weighed  39£  pounds. 
In  addition  to  these,  a  copper  gad,  with  the  head  much  battered, 
and  a  copper  chisel,  with  a  socket  for  the  reception  of  a  handle, 
wei-e  found,  containing  the  fragment  of  a  wooden  handle,  which 
crumbled  soon  after  being  exposed. 

In  clearing  out  one  of  these  pits,  at  the  depth  of  ten  feet,  a 
fragment  of  a  wooden  bowl  was  found,  which,  from  the  splintery 
pieces  of  rock  and  gravel  imbedded  in  its  rim,  seemed  to  give 
evidence  that  it  had  been  used  in  bailing  water. 

At  the  Phoenix  mine,  a  copper  knife  was  discovered  in  the 
explorations  of  an  old  working. 

At  Keweenaw  Point  and  at  Isle  Royale,  similar  discoveries 
have  been  made. 

All  must  admit  that  the  facts  set  forth  above  in  regard  to  the 
excavations,  and  the  stone  and  copper  implements  found  therein, 
assign  to  them  a  very  high  antiquity ;  but  whether  made  by  a 
race  distinct  from  the  Indians  is  a  question  about  which  there  is 
some  doubt,  but  I  incline  strongly  to  the  opinion  that  we  can  not, 
nor  need  not,  look  beyond  the  Indians  for  a  solution  of  the  problem. 
I  think  it  is  their  work. 

How  fortunate  to  be  the  ]>ossessor  of  si>ecimens  of  their  stone 
and  copper  implements,   used  by  them   in  their  copper-mining 
operations  so  far  back  in  the  history  of  this  country. 
Yours,  very  respectfully, 

STEUBEN  JENKINS. 


IXDIAX    RKUC    COXTKOVKRSY. 


EDITOR  OF  "  SCRAXTON  REGISTER:" — Indian  Stcuben  is  on  the 
war-path  again  with  his  cojtper  weapons ;  but  as  I  intend  to  take 


APPENDIX.  431 

off  his  scalp  before  long,  if  he  remains  in  war  costume,  you  need 
fear  no  danger. 

Some  weeks  ago,  Steuben  took  up  your  suggestion  of  exhibit- 
ing our  respective  collections  of  Indian  relics  side  by  side  in 
Scranton,  and  he  suggested  that  the  one  having  the  largest  should 
take  the  other ;  but  as  I  was  too  magnanimous  to  thus  deprive 
him  of  the  results  of  thirty  years'  labor,  I  declined  the  offer,  but 
proposed  that  we  exhibit  them  at  the  Wyoming  fair,  and  that 
the  one  whose  collection  should  be  the  best  calculated  to  throw 
light  upon  the  customs,  habits,  and  life  of  the  aboriginal  race, 
should  receive  a  diploma,  and  that  the  one  second  best  must  pay 
$50  to  the  Home  of  the  Friendless,  or  some  other  charitable 
institution.  This  offer  he  not  only  declined,  but  attempted  to 
throw  ridicule  and  suspicion  upon  my  motives  of  philanthropy  in 
offering  to  bestow  charity  upon  any  one  in  this  manner. 

So  your  readers  can  see  who  is  backing  down.  Instead  of 
performing  any  such  retrograde  movement,  I  am  determined  if 
possible  to  draw  his  frozen  contribution  boxes  out  in  daylight 
where  his  copper  traps  can  be  seen  without  a  tallow  candle,  and 
then  "  the  goal  of  my  ambition  "  will  have  been  reached.  And 
now  I  not  only  renew  my  offer  of  their  exhibition  at  Wyoming 
the  coming  fair,  provided  that  assurance  be  given  me  two  weeks 
before  the  fair  that  a  safe,  suitable  place  will  be  provided  for 
them,  but  I  would  here  choose  Steuben  Jenkins  one  of  the 
umpires  to  decide  the  matter,  because  I  believe  that  he  would 
give  an  honest  decision,  however  "  mysteriously  Indian  relics  dis- 
appear when  he  is  around."  It  is  true  he  has  every  advantage  of 
me,  because  he  has  made  many  a  pilgrimage  to  Razorville  to  see 
my  vast  collection  and  learn  how  to  arrange  his,  besides  this  he 
tells  you  that  he  has  visited  the  collection  of  Dr.  Swift,  in  Easton, 
but  failed  in  his  loquacious  mood  to  say  why  he  visited  it. 
Knowing  that  he  could  not  successfully  compete  with  mine,  he 
goes  to  Dr.  Swift  to  get  the  loan  of  his  for  the  purpose  of  exhibit- 
ing them  as  his  own  !  Now,  Steuben,  this  is  not  a  graceful  way 
to  launch  your  canoe  after  a  lost  battle ;  besides,  how  dangerous 
for  Dr.  Swift,  if  his  collection  is  of  any  value ! 

Goldsmith  imparts  vanity  to  the  one  writing  of  himself,  but  I 
did  not  suppose  that  I  was  so  vain  as  to  write  my  relics  into 
notice  for  the  sake  of  getting  my  boo  kand  "  nostrums  advertised 


432  APPENDIX. 

for  nothing"  until  Steuben  discovered  it.  The  volume  spoken  of 
has  been  out  of  print  since  1857,  and  can  be  purchased  nowhere 
now  ;  and  as  to  my  family  medicines,  I  can  not  possibly  supply 
the  great  demand  for  them  now,  and  why  should  I  seek  gratuitous 
advertisement,  when  you  know,  Mr.  Hill,  that  I  am  in  the  habit 
of  paying  liberally  for  what  I  get  in  that  line. 

I  concede  that  Steuben  makes  out  a  strong  case  for  himself 
on  paper  (and  what  sharp  or  lazy  Luzerne  lawyer  could  not  ?) 
and  that  he  has  a  few  copper  hatchets — probably  of  French  man- 
ufacture— which  I  have  not,  but  I  regard  the  wooden,  iron,  and 
copper  implements  found  along  our  cataracts  and  caverns  as  of 
little  or  no  value  to  the  antiquarian,  although  I  have  a  few  copper 
arrow-points  myself,  which  were  found  in  an  Indian's  grave  near 
Tunkhannock,  and  presented  to  me  with  many  other  relics,  some 
years  ago,  by  J.  M.  Robinson,  Esq.,  of  Meshoppen. 

Important  archaeological  explorations  pursued  with  admirable 
vigor  and  extraordinary  success  in  the  West — in  South  America, 
and  along  the  lakes  of  Zurich  and  Neufchatel  in  Switzerland, 
adduce  evidence  that  the  construction  of  the  copper  relics  some- 
times found  in  western  mounds,  belonged  not  to  any  of  our  known 
Indian  races.  In  fact,  the  Indian  knew  nothing  of  the  use  and 
value  of  copper  till  taught  by  the  whites. 

Their  creation  pertains  to  the  bronze  period,  which  some  of 
the  Swiss  archaeologists  have  concluded  to  represent  an  antiquity 
of  from  two  thousand  nine  hundred  to  four  thousand  two  hundred 
years;  the  age  of  stone  from  four  thousand  seven  hundred  to 
seven  thousand,  and  the  whole  period  of  from  seven  thousand 
four  hundred  to  eleven  thousand  years. 

I  have  some  rare  stone  pipes,  some  elegant  stone  cliisels  for 
removing  the  char  from  canoes,  and  a  singularly  beautiful  stone 
bird  or  idol,  found  along  the  Indian  path  crossing  the  farm  of  Dr. 
Throop,  in  Blakeley,  and  presented  to  me  by  Mr.  Shaw.  I  have 
never  seen  or  heard  of  any  thing  of  the  kind  ever  being  found  in 
the  country  before.  I  also  have  a  curious  dt?<itli-)nall,  constructed 
from  a  huge  ovoid  pebble,  weighing  twelve  pounds,  similar  to 
that  used  by  the  Indians  to  kill  their  captives.  After  the  battle 
of  Wyoming,  in  1778,  an  instrument  like  this  and  a  war-club  in 
rhe  hands  of  Queen  Esther,  mailed  and  slew  the  captives  around 
Bloody  Rock. 


APPENDIX.  433 

While  the  copper  utensils  spoken  of  by  Steuben  give  nothing 
but  a  faint  conjectural  idea  of  the  occupancy  of  the  county  at  the 
time  of  their  deposit,  and  belong  to  a  period  subsequent  to  that 
of  which  I  write,  the  antiquity  of  the  stone  weapons  of  Avar  is 
alike  instructive  and  wonderful. 

The  bow  and  the  arrow  are  spoken  of  in  Genesis  and  many 
other  places  in  Holy  Writ.  Arrows  were  first  made  of  reed ;  then 
of  strong,  light  wood,  with  a  stone  arrow-point  fastened  to  the 
end.  Among  the  Hebrews,  especially  among  the  tribes  of  Eph- 
raim  and  Benjamin,  archers  were  numerous. 

Among  the  ruins  of  the  Temple  of  Luxor,  on  the  Nile,  two  or 
three  thousand  years  old,  one  apartment  exhibits  a  great  battle, 
in  which  the  Egyptians,  armed  with  bows  and  arrows,  gained  a 
great  victory  over  their  Asiatic  enemies  equipped  with  javelin  and 
war-club. 

In  one  battle  between  the  Persians  and  the  Tartars,  800  B.  c., 
it  is  related  by  Persian  historians  that  their  great  chief  Rustam, 
with  his  own  war-club,  slew  1,160  of  his  foes  ! 

Fragments  of  Nineveh,  now  in  the  British  Museum,  introduce 
us  to  their  monarchs  thirty  centuries  ago,  clad  in  costume  of  war 
and  armed  only  with  the  arrow  and  the  bow. 

The  javelin  or  spear  was  a  missile  weapon,  and  took  the  place 
of  our  swords'  and  guns.  It  is  often  mentioned  in  the  Bible  in 
connection  with  light-armed  troops.  It  could  be  thrown  at  the 
enemy  at  a  great  distance,  and  in  the  great  conflicts  between  the 
Persians  and  Macedonians,  the  white  javelins  flew  and  fell  like 
snow-flakes  upon  the  contending  legions.  When  Xerxes  crossed 
the  Hellespont  with  his  gleaming  millions,  he  was  dared  and 
checked  by  the  Spartans,  armed  with  such  missiles  and  animated 
by  no  common  courage.  The  Medes  were  celebrated  for  the  use 
of  the  bow,  with  which  they  fought  on  horseback  with  terrific 
effect.  Their  arrows  were  poisoned  with  a  bituminous  liquor 
Avhich  burned  with  such  intensity  that  water  increased  the  heat. 
This  is  the  first  record  we  have  of  the  poisoned  arrow  used  so  much 
by  the  red  warrior.  I  have  several  poisoned  arrows  in  my  collection. 

"The  sword,"  sang  Mahomet  twenty-four  centuries  ago,  "is 
the  key  of  heaven  and  hell,  courage  then  my  children,  fight  like 
men,  close  up  your  ranks — discharge  your  arrows  and  the  day  is 

your  own  ! " 
28 


434  APPENDIX. 

In  the  hands  of  Tell,  the  arrow  saved  his  son  and  gave  free- 
dom to  the  land  of  the  Alps. 

The  Hungarians  threw  a  small  stone  ax  or  tomahawk  with 
such  dexterity  at  a  hundred  paces  that  a  victim  always  fell.  As 
late  as  1461  arrows  tipped  with  Steuben's  copper  were  used  by 
the  English  nation  as  a  weapon  of  defense. 

A  tribe  of  Indians  in  Paraguay,  South  America,  with  these 
rude  weapons  have  maintained  their  independence  against  all  the 
power  and  treachery  of  the  Spaniards  for  three  hundred  years. 

The  exploring  party  for  the  Pacific  Railroad,  in  1856,  found 
along  the  Colorado  many  of  these  stone  tomahawks  yet  in  use 
among  these  savages. 

Up  the  old  Nile  and  along  the  track  of  the  brave  and  lamented 
Speke,  the  black  warrior  still  goes  forth  thirsting  for  blood, 
with  club  and  lance  and  ever-beating  drum.  Is  it  strange  then 
that  these  stone  relics  running  along  the  history  of  so  many  strange 
centuries,  should  be  gathered  and  cherished  ?  And  if  it  "  is  fortu- 
nate to  be  the  possessor  of"  a  few  copper  trinkets  relating  to  a 
people  and  an  epoch  alike  indefinite  and  uncertain,  how  much 
greater  the  pleasure  to  know  that  you  can  glance  each  day  over 
stone  relics  whose  antiquity  carries  us  back  to  the  earliest  periods 
of  traditional  or  written  history  ! 

II.  i  IIOLLISTEK. 

PKOVIDENCE,  August  17,  1865. 


INDIAN    KELICS. 

EDITOR  OF  "  SORANTON  REGISTER" — DEAR  SIR  : — I  have  read 
the  whole  of  Dr.  Ilollister's  last  letter  relating  to  the  "  Indian  relic 
controversy."  It  is  true  I  read  it  in  a  state  of  great  trepidation 
and  alarm,  for  the  arrows,  spears,  tomahawks,  axes,  death-malls, 
scalping-knives,  tfcc.,  that  the  doctor  hurled  at  me  from  his  vast 
magazine,  whi/zed  and  bu/.ml  so  about  my  head,  as  to  keep  me 
in  a  perpetual  dodge,  and  yet  I  read  it — all  of  it.  You  will  won- 
der, and  so  do  I,  as  I  look  back  at  the  dangers  through  which  I 
passed  in  doing  so.  Happily,  however,  I  escaped  unharmed,  and 
a  careful  examination  convinces  me  that  my  scalp  is  still  on. 

The  doctor  renews  his  proposal,  "that  we  exhibit  our  collections 


APPENDIX.  435 

at  the  Wyoming  fair  this  fall,  and  that  the  one  whose  collection 
should  be  the  best  calculated  to  throw  light  upon  the  customs, 
habits,  and  life  of  the  aboriginal  race  should  receive  a  diploma, 
and  that  the  one  second  best  must  pay  $50  to  the  Home  of  the 
Friendless  Children  in  VVilkes  Barre,  or  some  other  charitable 
institution,  provided  that  assurance  be  given  him  two  weeks  before 
the  fair,  that  a  safe,  suitable  place  will  be  provided  for  them." 

This  offer  I  no  longer  refuse,  but  accept  of  the  same,  and 
assure  the  doctor  that  a  safe  and  suitable  place  will  be  provided 
for  his  collection,  and  I  will  get  this  assurance  in  writing  from  the 
officers  of  the  society  and  forward  to  him  in  a  few  days. 

The  Indian  relic  controversy,  so  far  as  the  doctor  and  I  are 
concerned,  is  now  ended.  The  point  I  aimed  at,  and  which  the 
doctor  seemed  to  desire, — a  public  exhibition  of  our  respective 
collections,  side  by  side,  and  a  decision  as  to  which  has  the  best 
and  largest  collection, — is  now  provided  for. 

It  remains,  however,  for  me  to  say  a  word  in  reference  to  the 
doctor's  very  extraordinary  learned  disquisition  upon  the  subject 
of  Indian  relics.  I  must  confess  my  great  surprise  at  the  antiquity 
of  the  age  of  stone.  I  was  aware  that  it  commenced  with  man, 
nearly  but  not  quite  six  thousand  years  ago,  but  until  I  read  the 
doctor's  article  I  was  not  aware  that  it  extended  back  some  five 
thousand  years  before  man  appeared  upon  the  earth — altogether 
some  "  eleven  thousand  years."  Man  was,  as  I  have  stated — taking 
the  test  authority  we  have  upon  the  subject — created  a  little  less 
than  six  thousand  years  ago.  I  wish  the  doctor  or  some  one  else 
would  inform  "  the  whole  world  and  the  rest  of  mankind,"  who 
made  stone  implements  eleven  thousand  years  ago,  who  they  made 
them  for,  and  what  use  they  made  of  them  ?  Not  more  surprised 
was  I  to  learn  from  the  doctor's  article,  for  the  first  time  in  all  my 
reading,  that  "  Mahomet  sang  twenty-four  centuries  ago."  As  I 
understand  it,  Mahomet  flourished  but  a  little  over  twelve  cen- 
turies ago.  I  wish  the  doctor  would  inform  me  in  what  song  of 
Mahomet  he  finds  the  language  he  attributes  to  him.  I  have 
Mahomet's  writing,  and  have  not  as  yet  seen  the  song  containing 
the  language  the  doctor  attributes  to  him.  But  it  was  twenty-four 
centuries  ago.  The  doctor  may  forget  in  so  long  time  where  to 
find  it.  But  where  does  the  doctor  get  his  new  chronology  ? 
The  stone  period,  extending  back  "  eleven  thousand  years  !  "  Ma 


436  APPENDIX. 

hornet  singing  "  twenty-four  centuries  ago  /"  I  can't  uiulerstand 
it.  The  fault  is  mine,  I  doubt  not.  I  feel  sometimes — and  I  don't 
know  why  I  should  not  feel  so  now,  as  I  stand  before  the  mighty 
mass  of  learning  the  doctor  has  accumulated  before  me — somewhat 
as  the  great  and  learned  Laplace  did  at  the  close  of  his  long  and 
brilliant  career,  "  that  what  I  know  is  little,  while  what  I  do  not 
know  is  immense."  I  hope  to  live  and  learn  yet  for  a  time,  and 
with  the  doctor  as  a  teacher,  I  have  no  doubt  I  may  get  to  know 
something. 

The  doctor  says  "  he  has  a  curious  death-mall,  constructed 
from  a  huge  ovoid  pebble."  When  I  read  that,  I  thought  myself 
that  the  doctor  had  a  curious-mall  that  would  be  the  death  of 
somebody  yet.  I  came  near  laughing  myself  to  death  the  first 
time  I  saw  it,  and  I  came  a  little  nearer  to  it  when  I  read  the 
doctor's  last  article.  The  fact  is,  I  was  confined  to  my  house  with 
illness  for  four  days  afterward,  and  I  can  give  no  other  cause 
for  it  than  that  curious  )nall — ;i  mere  water-washed  stone,  having 
no  more  marks  or  signs  of  Indian  workmanship  upon  it  than  the 
doctor's  phi/  has. 

If  the  doctor  will  read  history  a  little  more  carefully,  he  will 
find  that  it  was  the  Parthians  and  not  the  Medes  who  were  cele- 
brated for  the  use  of  the  bow  and  arrow  on  horseback.  Docs  the 
doctor  know  what  David  killed  Goliath  with  ?  Has  he  any  weapon 
of  that  sort  in  his  collection? 

In  my  last,  I  made  the  suggestion  that  while  it  was  matter  of 
doubt  among  archaeologists  whether  the  people  who  built  the 
mounds  were  the  same  that  inhabited  the  country  when  first  dis- 
covered by  the  whites — I  was  satisfied  that  they  were  one  and  the 
same  people.  Hut  few  facts  can  be  gathered  on  which  to  found  a 
hypothesis,  either  way,  but  those  facts,  however  few,  when  dis- 
covered should  have  their  full  weight.  Schoolcraft,  the  learned 
Indian  antiquarian,  who  made,  in  August,  1843,  an  elaborate  ex- 
amination of  the  mounds  found  at  Grave  Creek,  Virginia,  says  that 
"  several  polished  tubes  of  stone  were  found  in  one  of  the  lesser 
mounds.  They  were  about  one  foot  long,  one  and  a  fourth  inches 
in  diameter  at  one  end,  and  one  and  a  half  at  the  other.  They 
are  made  of  a  line,  compact,  lead-blue  steatite,  mottled,  and  con- 
structed by  boring  in  the  manner  of  a  gun-barrel.  This  boring  is 
continued  to  within  three-eighths  of  an  inch  of  the  large  end,  through 


APPENDIX.  437 

which  but  a  small  aperture  is  left.  If  this  small  aperture  be  looked 
through,  objects  at  a  distance  are  more  clearly  seen.  Its  construc- 
tion is  far  from  rude,  and  it  was  probably  designed  as  a  tele- 
scope." 

Joseph  Tomlinson,  who  settled  at  Grave  Creek  in  1770,  first 
discovered  the  mounds  there.  His  son,  A.  B.  Tomlinson,  in  1837 
commenced  excavating  the  larger  mound,  and  in  it,  among  other 
things,  he  found  a  lot  of  beads,  made  of  a  kind  of  porcelain,  simi- 
lar in  appearance  to  the  material  out  of  which  dentists  manufac- 
ture artificial  teeth.  I  have  in  my  collection  a  polished  tube  of 
stone,  exactly  like  the  one  described  by  Schoolcraft,  which  was 
found  some  three  years  ago  at  Northumberland,  in  this  State,  in 
excavating  for  the  railroad;  and  I  also  have  a  very  large  and 
beautiful  string  of  beads,  of  the  kind  found  by  Tomlinson,  which 
were  dug  out  of  some  Indian  grave  at  Wilkes  Barre  a  year  ago. 
In  addition  to  these  are  the  facts  of  pottery  and  copper  imple- 
ments being  common  to  the  mound  and  to  our  Indians,  the  infer- 
ence and  proof  are,  therefore,  very  strong  that  the  mound-builders 
and  the  Indians  were  one  and  the  same  people,  and  that  they  were 
I  have  no  doubt.  The  proof  is  all  in  that  direction. 

Another  word  to  the  doctor  and  I  am  done.  He  should  be 
certain  of  his  facts  before  he  states  them  as  such,  or  draws  con- 
clusions from  them.  This  is  the  great  duty  of  every  inquirer  after 

truth.  Yours  truly, 

STEUBEN  JENKINS. 


THE    INDIAN    RELIC    CONTROVERSY. 

As  Steuben  Jenkins  wishes  to  bury  the  hatchet  for  the  pur- 
pose of  saving  his  own  scalp,  and  as  I  value  copper  trinkets  too 
lightly  to  desire  the  possession  of  the  top  of  his  head,  which  for 
the  last  few  weeks  has  been  quivering  with  scalping  dreams,  we 
will  smoke  the  calumet  awhile,  so  that  this  article  will  be  the 
last  one  upon  Indian  relics  the  public  will  have  for  some  time ; 
not  but  what  very  much  could  be  written  about  the  former  occu- 
pants of  our  valley  and  their  memorials :  but  how  compai'atively 
few  care  for  the  relics  of  the  red  men !  although  as  long  as  spring 
can  awaken  flowers  from  the  meadow,  these  memorials  will  have 
their  interest  and  value  to  the  antiquarian. 


438  APPENDIX. 

I  will  briefly  answer  Steuben's  objections  in  the  order  of  their 
appearance. 

1st.  The  ridiculous  importance  he  gave  to  his  copper  hatchets, 
<fce.,  some  weeks  ago — which  were  all  of  European  manufacture — 
vanished  the  moment  I  exhibited  their  utter  want  of  claim  to 
antiquity,  as  shown  by  Squier,  Charlevoix,  Bartram,  and  Brabeuf, 
leaving  Steuben  nothing  to  do  but  to  sing  "  the  song  of  Mahomet 
twenty-four  centuries  ago."  Mahomet  was  born  569  A.  c.,  and 
his  flight  took  place  G'22  A.  c.,  as  every  student  of  history  knows, 
but  the  typographical  error  made  my  article  read  ticcnty-fonr 
instead  of  twelve  centuries  ago.  Steuben  writes  too  much,  and 
reads  too  little  in  his  Koran  to  acquire  or  impart  knowledge, 
or  appreciate  the  historical  facts  I  have  so  liberally  brought  to 
his  view. 

2d.  I  am  sorry  that  I  once  exhibited  that  "  curious  death- 
mall1'  to  him,  because  I  fear  that  it  has  knocked  him  senseless 
forever,  and  yet  that  stone  implement  of  death  attracted  him  once 
to  Providence,  and  then  how  his  eyes  wished  and  his  mouth 
watered  as  he  gazed  on  its  vast  proportions  safely  reposing  under 
glass,  while  the  key  was  safe  in  my  own  pocket !  And  when  he 
found  that  no  persuasion  could  allure  this  unique  and  valuable 
stone  into  his  collection  (of  boxes  hid  in  sheds),  he  discovered 
that  it  was  nothing  more  than  "  a  mere  \vater-\vashed  stone !" 
Steuben,  the  fact  is,  that  the  upper  end  of  the  county  is  too  much 
for  your  fussy  copper  kettles,  even  after  a  very  clever  Pittston 
doctor  helped  you  scour  them  up. 

3d.  It  is  true  that  the  Parthians  or  Scythians — now  the  Tar- 
tar race — were  among  the  most  skillful  archers  in  the  world  on 
horseback,  and  shot  their  arrows  with  unerring  precision  even  on 
a  gallop;  but  if  Steuben  will  look  into  the  same  history  he  refers 
me  to,  he  will  find  that  the  first  historical  fact  known  of  the  Par- 
thians is  that  they  were  the  subjects  of  the  Medes,  from  whom 
tlicv  learned  their  skill  in  archery.  This  was  before  the  Tartars 
liecame  powerful  under  the  great  Tamerlane. 

4th.  Would  it  not  be  creditable  for  Steuben  to  read  some- 
thing of  chronology  and  archa-ology,  as  well  as  to  interpret  cor- 
rectly what  I  write?  I  stated  that  "the  Swiss  archaeologists  have 
concluded  that  the  age  of  bronze  may  represent  an  antiquity  of 
from  2,900  to  4,200  years,  the  age  of  stone  from  4,700  to  7,000 


APPENDIX.  439 

years,  and  the  whole  series  a  period  of  from  7,000  to  11,000 
years." 

All  must  acknowledge  the  imperfection  of  archaeological 
record,  and  presume  that  a  mere  definite  chronology  Avill  event- 
ually be  established.  Kenedy,  in  his  Scriptural  Chronology,  says 
that  300  different  opinions,  founded  upon  the  Bible,  may  be  col- 
lected as  to  the  length  of  time  that  has  elapsed  between  the  crea- 
tion and  the  birth  of  Christ.  Fabricius,  in  his  Bibliotheca  Anti- 
quaria,  has  given  a  list  of  140  of  these  calculations.  I  would 
refer  Steuben  to  these  works,  also  to  the  chronological  works  of 
Dr.  Hale,  Prof.  Playfair,  and  Desvignolles.  And  although  the 
literature  of  the  Swiss  is  merged  into  that  of  France  and  Ger- 
many, friend  Steuben  would  find  great  information  in  perusing 
the  works  of  Lavater,  Sismondi,  Haller,  Euler,  Le  Sage,  Necker, 
and  other  Swiss  authors. 

The  "  stone  polished  tube"  in  Steuben's  possession,  he  thinks 
was  used  by  the  Indians  as  a  telescope.  If  it  were  possible  to 
conceive  of  any  thing  more  comical  than  an  Indian,  inhabiting  the 
forest  so  dense  that  he  could  not  see  his  own  nose,  looking  through 
Steuben's  "  polished  tube"  as  a  telescope  into  the  thicket,  it  might 
be  found  in  the  idea  of  Steuben's,  that  the  "  long  polished  tube" 
was  ever  used  by  the  aborigines  for  such  a  purpose ! 

"  Lo !  the  poor  Indian  whose  untutored  mind 
Sees  God  in  the  forest,"  through  Steuben's  long  tube  I 

Schoolcraft  no  doubt  drew  an  honest  inference  in  the  matter 
from  the  light  accessible  then,  but  there  is  no  possible  evidence 
in  Indian  histories  or  antiquarian  explorations  of  any  such  use 
being  made  of  these  "  polished  tubes."  I  have  a  broken  portion 
of  one  in  my  possession,  which  from  my  knowledge  of  Indian 
character  and  habit,  I  am  satisfied  was  used,  like  all  these  tubes, 
by  their  medicine-men  to  render  their  incantations  more  potent 
and  effective.  Spectacles  nor  telescopes  never  vexed  an  Indian's 
eye.  So  much  for  Steuben,  who  has  switched  himself  off  the 
track,  where  I  am  sorry  to  leave  him — out  on  the  switch. 

In  Wyoming  Valley,  where  the  Indian  fought  with  tomahawk 
aud  war-club  to  save  his  hunting-grounds,  fortifications  exist 
whose  history  has  been  lost  even  to  tradition. 

Along    the    Lackawanna,    Indian   tribes    left    no   such    trace. 


44:0  APPENDIX. 

Although  from  careful  explorations  there  appears  to  have  been  no 
1<. ss  than  seven  Indian  villages  along  the  Lackawanna — all  stand- 
ing upon  its  eastern  bank — but  a  single  mound  denotes  their  place 
of  burial.  Evidences  of  villages  are  found  in  implements  of  stone 
and  clay  scattered  along  the  river,  generally  where  some  tribu- 
tary comes  in.  One  peculiar  feature  appears  in  the  fact,  that 
where  the  broken  pottery  is  most  abundant,  no  stone  utensil 
other  than  a  corn  pounder  or  pestle  is  found  within  twenty  or 
thirty  yards — showing  that  the  braves  practiced  archery  away 
from  the  shadows  of  their  wigwams.  Near  the  late  Dr.  Robin- 
son's, a  little  stream  puts  into  the  Lackawanna,  on  the  bank  of 
which,  rising  into  a  gentle  knoll,  many  relics  are  seen,  and  yet  no 
culinary  utensils  are  found.  Near  this  point  is  seen  a  small  ele- 
vation which  I  have  named  Cupoose  Mound,  as  it  stands  at  the 
head  of  the  old  Indian  meadow  of  Capoose.  At  the  time  of  the 
first  settlement  of  Providence  by  the  whites,  in  1770,  there  were 
about  a  do/en  graves  here.  In  1799,  however,  a  party  of  persons, 
one  of  whom  still  survives,  opened  these  graves.  A  small  copper 
kettle  of  European  manufacture,  large  quantities  of  wampum  and 
arrow-heads  were  exhumed,  carried  away  and  lost. 

Of  the  Indian's  mortar,  or  mill,  for  pounding  na-sump,  or 
samp,  but  few  are  found  in  the  country  unbroken.  Whoever  has 
had  the  patience  to  toil  up  the  mountain  side  to  Bald  Mount  in 
Xewton,  will  find  in  a  huge  rock  projecting  over  the  precipice  a 
number  of  holes  or  Indian  mortar-places,  made  in  the  stone  by  the 
patient  wild  man,  which  no  doubt  were  used  by  them  for  domes- 
tic purposes.  Some  have  the  capacity  of  a  gallon.  Of  course 
portable  ones  were  generally  used  by  them,  sometimes  made  of 
wood,  but  oftener  of  stone. 

This  height  was  no  doubt  chosen  for  a  camp-place,  so  as  to 
enable  the  Indians  a  chance  to  look  down  into  the  forest  through 
those  "  polished  tubes." 

How  long  the  Indian  smoked  his  pipe  along  the  Hudson  or 
Mohawk  before  the  discovery,  we  know  not,  but  the  white  man 
was  first  cursed  with  the  knowledge  of  tobacco  in  1492.  No  arti- 
cle of  luxury  was  constructed  with  more  care — cherished  with 
holier  memories — loved  with  more  constant  fervor  than  the 
Indian's  pipe.  Their  calumet,  or  pipe  of  peace,  was  among  the 
most  prized  and  sacred  articles  of  all  the  stone  implements  of  the 


APPENDIX.  441 

wigwam.     I  have  in  my  collection  a  large  number  of  pipes  of 
rare  and  exquisite  workmanship. 

I  also  have  some  elegant  moose-skin  robes,  such  as  were 
worn  by  Rocky  Mountain  chiefs,  porcupine  necklaces,  and  hunt- 
ing-belts for  stringing  scalps  and  trophies,  medicine  bags,  and 
war  caps  in  full  plume — but  these  perishable  things,  while  they 
attract  the  superficial  eye,  have  no  more  real  value  than  copper 
implements.  So  much  for  Indian  stone  relics,  which  some  day 
will  gather  around  them  more  interest  than  they  can  possibly 
command  now.  And  yet  "  what  are  they  good  for  ?"  asks  some 
jingler  of  dollars.  If  every  line  of  written  history  was  oblitera- 
ted forever,  the  presence  and  progress  of  races — their  character 
and  conquests — the  diffusion  of  tribes — their  relative  approach  to 
or  departure  from  civilization — most  of  their  habits,  and  many  of 
their  religious  notions  could  be  plainly  elucidated  by  the  aid  of 
these  relics,  which  to  the  unpracticed  eye  seem  like  rude,  unmean- 
ing stone.  Upon  the  fairest  face  that  ever  smiled  or  wept,  beauty 
will  perish,  and  lips  proudly  glowing  with  hopes  of  many  sum- 
mers, dissolve  into  untroubled  earth,  forgetting  and  forgot,  while 
these  sad  memorials  of  another  day  and  another  race,  whose  voice 
gives  back  no  echo  from  the  wild,  neglected  by  many,  despised 
by  more,  and  treasured  but  by  few,  when  many  a  voice  is  still, 
and  many  a  heart  is  cold,  these  simple  relics  will  remain  perfect 

in  their  integrity,  and  beautiful  in  their  silence  ! 

H.  HOLLISTER. 

Sept.  7, 1865. 


The  following  report  of  the  Committee  on  Indian  Relics,  exhib- 
ited at  the  late  fair  of  the  Lucerne  County  Agi'icultural  Society, 
will  prove  of  interest  to  our  readers. — [EDITOR  Lucerne  Union.'] 

The  Committee  appointed  by  the  Lucerne  County  Agricultural 
Society  to  report  upon  the  Exhibition  of  Indian  Relics,  made  by 
Dr.  Hollister  and  Steuben  Jenkins.  Esq.,  at  the  recent  Annual  Fail- 
on  the  Society's  grounds,  near  the  Wyoming  battle-field,  take  un- 
usual pleasure  in  saying  that  the  exhibition  was  in  every  respect 
far  superior  to  any  thing  anticipated  or  looked  for.  The  respective 
collections  of  these  gentlemen  are  a  monument  to  their  untiring 
industry  and  love  of  science.  They  will  challenge  the  admiration 
of  all  men  in  all  places  where  hereafter  they  may  be  exhibited. 


442  APPENDIX. 

To  the  niau  of  science  ami  learning  they  are  a  volume  of  American 
history,  to  be  read  and  studied  nowhere  else.  A  single  glance 
over  these  splendid  collections  gives  almost  every  implement  used 
by  the  red  man,  whether  in  the  fight,  or  the  chase,  the  wigwam 
or  the  corn-field,  for  there  are  the  bow  and  the  arrows,  the  knife 
and  the  tomahawk  of  the  warrior,  the  rude  mortar  and  pestle  for 
the  squaw,  and  the  delicate  arrow-head  for  the  early  practice  of 
the  Indian  boy.  Here  the  book,  and  the  oidy  book  of  centuries 
of  aboriginal  savage  life,  in  war  and  in  peace,  unfolds  to  the  eye 
the  living  history  of  a  people  fast  disappearing  from  their  ancient 
grounds  toward  the  setting  sun.  We  congratulate  the  Agricul- 
tural Society  in  having  been  permitted  to  furnish  to  its  numerous 
visitors  at  their  fair,  so  unique  a  display,  awakening  in  the  bosoms 
of  many  of  them  such  thrilling  recollections  of  the  bloody  tragedy 
once  enacted  on  this  same  field.  We  have  heard  on  all  sides  since 
the  opening  of  the  exhibition  but  one  continued  expression  of 
praise  and  thanks  to  Messrs.  Ilollister  and  Jenkins.  We  are  cer- 
tain that  every  man,  woman,  and  child,  who  have  been  gratified 
by  a  sight  of  these  relics,  will  not  only  join  the  Committee  in 
thanks  to  those  gentlemen,  but  will  co-operate  with  them  in  the 
work  in  which  they  are  engaged.  In  judging  upon  the  compara- 
tive size  and  merits  of  the  respective  collections,  the  Committee, 
after  a  careful  examination,  concluded  that  the  difference  between 
them  was  but  slight,  and  as  the  one  in  whose  favor  that  difference 
seemed  to  predominate,  desired  that  the  Committee,  if  practicable 
and  satisfactory  to  the  Society,  should  render  no  decision  upon 
that  point,  but  should  treat  both  collections  as  equally  meritorious 
and  entitled  to  the  consideration  of  the  Society,  they  have  con- 
cluded to  adopt  this  view  of  the  subject.  The  Committee  would 
therefore  recommend  that  the  special  thanks  of  the  Lucerne  Agri- 
cultural Society  be  extended  to  both  Dr.  Ilollister  and  Mr.  Jenkins, 
and  that  in  addition  thereto  there  be  awarded  to  each  of  those 
gentlemen,  by  the  Society,  a  silver  pitcher  or  goblet,  of  value  not 
less  than  fifty  dollars,  with  suitable  inscriptions  thereon  to  com- 
memorate the  facts.  E.  W.  STURDKVANT, 

C.    DORRAXCE, 

C.  PARSONS, 

ADW.  T.  MCCLIXTOCK. 

JOHN'  N.  COXYKGHAM, 

Committee. 


Los  Angeles 
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